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Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 08:00
Six secondary schools in the area are taking part in the six-month trial.
Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire Police are teaming up to make it easier for bus operators to report incidents caught on film by installing the extra cameras.
The county council is allocating £40,000 with a similar amount to come from operators, to provide the additional cameras.
The scheme is based on a model developed by Transport for London to address crime and anti-social behaviour. The six schools taking part are Sir William Romney, Archway, Stroud High, Marling, Rednock and Thomas Keble.
County councillor Stan Waddington, the Cabinet member for environment, said: “Thankfully, there haven't been many incidents, but when they do happen they cause real concern for children, parents, schools and bus operators.
“Anti-social behaviour on school transport is not something we are prepared to accept and we want anyone who is tempted to misbehave on their journey to or from school to know they won't get away with it.
“Better still if we can convince pupils, where it's necessary, to change their behaviour,” he said.
Many school buses already have CCTV, but at the moment the process of reporting incidents is time consuming and uncoordinated.
During the trial a generic email address will make it easier for bus operators to report any incident .
The police are already starting working with Year Seven pupils at Sir William Romney School to design a poster about the project.
Submitted designs will be judged over the summer, with the winning entry appearing on buses across the county.
Pc Nicola Dannatt said the project had caught the imagination of the youngsters getting involved.
“We've received some fantastic designs,” she said.
“This is an exciting joint initiative that enables the pupils to take responsibility for making their journey to and from school safer for themselves and their school friends.”
It is planned to launch the scheme on September 1.
If the pilot scheme is successful, it will extended to all school buses in Gloucestershire for a further six months with a view to rolling it out across the whole of the county's public transport network.
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