Fuel thieves take special school's bus off road

The school is hoping to raise £10,000 to purchase an accessible vehicle

A special school's minibus has been taken off the road because fuel thieves have damaged the vehicle.

Staff at Applefields School in York said they were struggling to transport pupils with additional needs after the fuel tank was tampered with and one of its three minibuses written off.

A Gofundme appeal launched to replace the vehicle has so far raised more than £2,000.

The bus was used to take students on trips to destinations such as Scarborough.

They were also driven to activities like the cinema and ice skating in the bus.

Assistant headteacher Lydia Waites said the students and staff had been left “devastated” by the incident.

She added: “We’re having to pay for taxis to enable our students to go and access the activities that they have on a weekly basis.”

Enrichment visits which students had been looking forward to had been cancelled because of the transport shortage.

The school is hoping to raise £10,000 to purchase an accessible vehicle that meets the needs of its pupils.

Ms Waites added: “We were going to go on a residential trip soon and we were going to use the bus to take equipment and to take one of our students who may need some additional stops on the journey.

"It's important that we get the bus back to be able to operate all of our other educational visits.”

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said the fuel theft happened overnight between Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 November at the school.

They said: “The suspects drilled the tank of the 63-reg Fiat Ducato school minibus and took around £100 worth of fuel.”

They added that enquiries were ongoing.

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