YELLOW Buses staff have made an impassioned plea to a local coach company: "leave us alone."

Union representative James Wall said he feared Excelsior's bid for the Bournemouth bus company was nothing more than a "spoiling tactic" designed to benefit Wilts and Dorset.

And he appealed to the coach company's boss, Ken Robins, to step back and allow the proposed sale of Yellow Buses to Transdev to progress.

Last week, Bournemouth council rejected Mr Robins' bid for Yellow Buses because it claimed he was in consortium with one of the original bidders - believed to be Go Ahead, the parent company of Wilts and Dorset.

Mr Wall, branch secretary for the Transport and General Workers Union at Yellow Buses, said he believed Go Ahead

wanted to delay the sale of Yellow Buses to give it time to reduce the financial viability of Yellow Buses.

"If this is not illegal, it has got to be immoral to have this sort of business practice going on. Dirty tricks is a polite way to describe it," he said.

"If Mr Robins proceeds with his threatened appeal against the second decision not to sell to him, it will be simply to gain more time to allow Go Ahead to run Yellow Buses into the ground, leaving nothing left to sell.

"Mr Robins should now leave our jobs and pensions well alone."

But Mr Robins, who is considering legal action against Bournemouth council, insisted his bid was legitimate.

He said he had offered to discuss the situation with Mr Wall three times but his invitation had always been declined.

"I fully agree with Mr Wall that this is having a very bad effect on Bournemouth Transport and the staff but I feel like somebody who has been unlawfully treated by the council," he said.

"The Department for Transport ruled I had been unlawfully prevented from bidding. I am the victim in this, so why should I now drop my offer?

"It's not me getting it wrong, it is the council."

First published: October 3