THREE bus shelters on the same stretch of road were smashed in what has been branded an act of “wanton vandalism”.

Yobs left a trail of destruction in Huddersfield Road, going towards Bradford city centre, where shelter windows had been completely destroyed.

Shards of glass were strewn across the pavement yesterday morning at a stop near Appleton Academy, Wyke, and further up the road near Low Moor Medical Centre. A third shelter was also targeted near the road’s busy junction with Netherlands Avenue.

Bus passengers were forced to stand away from piles of glass, while those walking on the pavement had to move on to the road to avoid the dangerous mess.

One woman said: “It’s ridiculous. Something needs to be done – they just think it’s fun.”

Another passenger said it seemed to happen regularly and branded the culprits “disgraceful”.

At the shelter near Netherlands Avenue, a team from BSW Group, which carries out maintenance for West Yorkshire Combined Authority, was working to clear the area. A representative for the company said the screens would be replaced with a plastic material rather than glass and said the team had been called to around six incidents on the road over the past two to three weeks.

Councillor David Warburton (Labour, Wyke) slammed it as “wanton vandalism”.

He said: “It’s just mindless, it’s thoughtless. Why do they want to do this?

“There’s no thought for the community, for the people who want to use the bus services in the community. We will be talking with the Combined Authority and having a look at what we can do.”

A West Yorkshire Combined Authority spokesman said: “While the vast majority of passengers appreciate the Combined Authority’s 4,000 West Yorkshire bus shelters as a place to wait for their bus, there is a mindless minority who vandalise them.

“And as well as inconveniencing passengers, it also costs the authority a six-figure sum every year, repairing and replacing bus stops and shelters damaged through criminal acts of mindless vandalism across West Yorkshire; money which most people in West Yorkshire would rather we were spending on developing better facilities for everyone else.

“West Yorkshire Combined Authority has been deploying concealed, portable CCTV cameras in shelters for some years to combat such attacks, and evidence recorded by these cameras has been used to secure a number of convictions.”

Damage can be reported at wymetro.com/contactmetro/BusStopDamageForm.