Vandals cause £20k damage at Staffordshire old bus repair firm

The "small hobby business" has been operating for 23 years

An old bus repair firm said vandals had caused about £20,000 worth of damage by smashing dozens of panes of glass.

Reliance Bus Works in Chesterton, Staffordshire, which has been going for 23 years, said CCTV showed six people were there on Sunday afternoon.

A GoFundMe appeal set up by a customer has amassed more than £5,700 so far.

Business owner Martyn Hearson, 62, a lover of old buses since childhood, said the consensus was "we will carry on", but it was "a close thing".

"We're a small hobby business. Profit margins are very low," he said.

"We can't be giving vehicles back in a lesser condition. We've got to knuckle under and repair them."

The firm said 20 panes on a bus costing £60 each "would be a lot of money"

Mr Hearson, who worked for an independent bus firm after he left school in 1978, ran his own bus company for 10 years.

His daughter manages the business side of things at his old vehicle repair firm, which involves buses "95% of the time", and there are five other workers.

The company said the "consensus is we will carry on"

The owner said some vehicles were from the 1950s and probably more than 60 panes of glass had been broken. He appealed for help from anyone who had appropriate glass.

Mr Hearson said it could be made at a cost, but if the firm could find "original specification glass" that "may be languishing in yards or [is] being collected by others for their own restorations" it was more cost effective.

But those solutions also involved funding, as "we've still got a 500-mile round trip and the risk of breakages".

More than £5,700 has been raised in a GoFundMe appeal

The company said a "big thank you to those who have made contact" on Monday with offers of help "or just to express sadness, dismay or even anger".

The owner said there had been offers from "Glasgow to East Anglia to North Devon and we've had one offer from Malta".

The company said probably more than 60 panes of glass had been broken

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