Vandals damage buses

THE future of bus services in Newhaven and Seaford has been thrown into jeopardy after vandals rampaged through a depot causing 20,000 damage.

Just two youths are believed to be responsible for smashing up to 50 bus windows at RDH Services in New Road, Newhaven, on Friday evening.

The pair also damaged electronic ticket machines and fire extinguishers.

The destruction caused delays and cancellations on the 26 and 120 Seaford and the 145 Newhaven town circular routes over the weekend.

Tom Hawthorne, who is RDH joint owner with business partner Derek Hunnisett, said: 'At about 7.20pm as our last bus came into the yard near the railway station the driver saw two youths run off.'

The damage he found came as a major blow to the small company which only took over the routes from Connex in January.

Mr Hawthorne said: 'It caused big problems and put four of our vehicles off the road. The profit rates for us on this route are marginal so we do not need this sort of carry-on tipping the balance.

'All the guys who work here are from Newhaven and Seaford and everybody's livelihood is jeopardised by this mindless act of vandalism.'

He added: 'We do not want to give up on the bus service but vandalism adds to operations costs, passengers don't get their services and jobs are put at risk.'

The damaged single-decker buses where taken to RDH's Plumpton depot were fitters worked round the clock to get services up and running again for this week.

Police were unable to find the hooligans who caused the damage and have issued an appeal to trace them.

The pair, both white, ran off in the direction of North Quay. One was aged 15, 5ft tall, and wearing a blue jumper with three diamonds on the front. The other was aged 12, 4ft tall, wearing a dark coat.

Readers with any information about them can call police on 0845 6070999, quoting serial 1495/12.04.02.