Residents of a road in the Rhondda Valleys say they fear for their safety as Stagecoach buses illegally drive on the pavement 'on a daily basis' - just inches from their front door. A resident of East Road in Tylorstown claims she was almost run over by one of the buses as she stepped out of her home.
Another resident of the road has captured years of CCTV footage showing the buses entering and driving past the sidewalk. The clips, shared with WalesOnline, appear to show bus drivers doing this when the road is too narrow for two large vehicles to pass through, such as when two buses pass at the same time.
Residents claim complaints have been made to Stagecoach, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and South Wales Police for years and their councilor and MP have even become involved - but nothing has improved. The latest clip shared with WalesOnline shows a bus driving illegally along the sidewalk on Saturday, April 6. Stagecoach told WalesOnline that safety is "our top priority" and that they intend to "investigate this matter fully". Meanwhile, the council said it had raised concerns with the bus company and that a formal investigation into these incidents was a police matter.
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East Road resident Alana Sargent, 41, who cares for relatives and volunteers in the community, has lived on the streets for six years. "It's always happened, but it's getting worse now because of the amount of traffic on the road," she said. "Generally speaking, other people will pull onto the sidewalk but stop, while Stagecoach won't stop - they keep driving past the houses at high speed, so close to the door... We even had it done with a double-decker."
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She claimed it was a daily occurrence. "Some will wait, some won't. Normally around noon, when another bus arrives, we get a problem," she said, adding that the morning, when the garbage bags were collected, was also a problematic time. She claimed she had been "almost run over" by buses on the sidewalk "several times" and fears someone will be seriously injured or even killed before action is taken.
She added that when the buses were on the sidewalk, they were only "a wing mirror's width from the door." "I wonder if [the buses] I'm actually going to drop by for a cup of tea, I'll be honest. They are so close," she said.
She claims she almost got a phone call on May 11, 2022, when a bus nearly knocked her over just as she stepped out the front door. CCTV footage appearing to show this incident was shared with WalesOnline. "I opened the door and looked outside. Luckily I looked to see that a bus was coming and I had to get back on. That's when I started complaining," she said.
'He would be dead'
Alana pointed out that most of her neighbors were elderly, had mobility issues, or had children in strollers. She added that her own family also had underlying health and mobility issues, with her son having to use the wheelchair outside the home.
"He doesn't want to use a seat along our stretch of road, though, because of the buses," she said. She recalled another time when she was reportedly almost hit. "I had to jump through the doorway because the bus was driving along the sidewalk while I was walking down the street. If I had had my son with me and he was sitting in his seat, he wouldn't have had a chance. .he would be dead.'
She said her husband also worries that he "can't get out of the way fast enough." "I've almost been run over several times, but I'm lucky enough to get out of the way. My husband is the same: he's opened the door a few times and a vehicle flies by. So it's lucky he's not ." got out," she said.
Aside from the near misses, Alana also claims that the repeated mounting of the buses on the sidewalk in front of her house has damaged the house. "The condition of the path is all uneven. The pavers have sunk lower than the actual edge of the curb," she said, claiming this has caused water to collect in the area and "seep into the houses" when it rains.
Parked cars are 'blamed'
In the camera images, the road is narrow for two buses to pass through, because there are cars parked on one side, opposite her house. "It's now gotten to the point where the blame is being shifted back to the cars that are parked, where they are parked legally," she claimed.
After Alana complained about the issue on X (formerly Twitter), a Stagecoach spokesperson replied to her: "I have reported this to the depot, but recommend that you also contact the municipality about parking on the street so that buses can pass safely."
She said she asked the council to install bollards on the pavement to prevent buses from passing by, but they refused as this would "impede accessibility". She is concerned that double yellow lines will be painted along the road, limiting parking for residents.
"There is no parking anywhere else. "If you drive all the way into the valley from Pontygwaith there are cars parked on one side of the road," she said. "If they want to get rid of the parking across the street and put the problem all the way into the Valley... that's two, three, maybe four miles from the residents who can't park their cars.
"[It] this means that no one can park near their house. And there are a lot of people in Rhonda who have mobility issues." She added: " We don't have access to the back of our property, so we can't even park the car in the back... the side street above us is chock full of blocks, you wouldn't get parked there, and the street below us, you would also not parked."
'It is a criminal offence'
Alana claimed that despite her councilor contacting South Wales Police over the issue for two years, nothing had improved. She said: "We have the local police team saying it was a 'caught red-handed' [found committing offence]even though there is CCTV footage and photographic evidence of this happening."
She added: "The Highway Code states that when overtaking parked cars you must wait until you can move if the obstacle is on your side of the road. If the obstacle is on the other side of the road, coming, and there is someone already overtaking the parked cars, you should wait and let them pass until you can drive through it safely and not drive on the sidewalk. It is actually a criminal offense. It's classified as dangerous driving... All I want is for it to stop before anyone gets hurt.
'Passing the houses at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour'
David Wheatley, Alana's neighbor on East Road, captured all the alleged examples of Stagecoach buses driving along the pavement in this CCTV footage and shared the footage with WalesOnline. He described the buses as "tearing past" the houses at a speed of "20mph", just a "mirroring distance from the wall".
"The only reason they're not closer to the door is because the side mirror gets ripped off the wall. That's how close they come," says David, a retired civil servant. He estimated that the buses normally travel as much as 200 yards along the sidewalk before getting off.
He said that recently there was scaffolding that prevented them from driving on the sidewalk for so long, but at the moment they still manage to drive past about half a dozen houses, within 50 metres. He claims he contacted the Stagecoach depot in Porth in January 2022, who assured they would put an end to illegal pavement riding, but to no avail.
Response from Stagecoach and municipality
Martin Gibbon, Managing Director of Stagecoach South Wales said: "Safety is our top priority and we have since agreed to fully investigate this matter following receipt of this complaint."
A spokesperson for Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said: "We fully understand the concerns raised by the community about this issue. When the Council was made aware of the footage, officers raised concerns with the bus service operator - because it was being driven in such a manner. on the sidewalk and very close to property is clearly unacceptable. Any formal investigation into these incidents, as with any case of dangerous driving, would be the role of South Wales Police."
WalesOnline has contacted South Wales Police for comment.
