Man told he can't take paint pot on bus

A health and safety row has erupted after a passenger was banned from boarding a number 9 bus - for carrying a pot of paint. Simon Virr, of Winfold Road, Waterbeach was told by the driver of a Stagecoach bus in Cambridge it would be a breach of health and safety rules to allow him to board.

The Cambridge University administrator decided to splash out on the tub of stone ochre matt emulsion from Fired Earth in the city centre.

But when the 33-year-old tried to catch the bus home on Monday, the driver banned him from getting on.



Mr Virr said: "I got on the bus with a big five litre pot of matt emulsion paint when the driver asked: 'Is that paint?'. "I thought: 'That's a stupid question, what do you think it is?' Then he said: 'We don't have paint on the bus', and told me I couldn't get on with it.

"It's ridiculous. I phoned the bus operator's manager and he said I should have doublebagged the paint so that the driver didn't see what I was carrying. But I think it would be more of a hazard in a bag because passengers wouldn't know what it was and could kick it over. But it was new paint and unlikely that the vacuum sealed top would have come off. It's only water-based paint."

Philip Norwell, commercial director of Stagecoach in Cambridge, said: "In times gone by paint was often toxic and it was not allowed on the bus. But these days, paint that is not toxic can still cause problems if it spills out. It can cause major problems if it splashes over customers and the bus. The common sense approach is to put it in a double bag and make sure the lid is firmly secured and then if it falls to the floor it is unlikely to spill."