A BUS company has taken action after a driver was hounded by shoppers for passing them at a bus stop.

Video footage shows a First bus driver passing through Head Street in Colchester on Wednesday.

The video shows a man standing in front of a bus headed for West Mersea, he is shouting at the driver for attempting to drive past a group of shoppers who had been waiting.

The man is heard saying: “You have driven past a bus stop where there is 20 people waiting for the bus.

“You were reading, you weren’t even watching the road. Do not go without these people.”

At this point a traffic warden notices the man and tries to calm him down.

Another man is heard telling the shoppers to “get on” the bus, to which the driver responds, telling them they cannot board.

One man with a crutch manages to get on the bus, but the driver shuts the doors before anyone else can get on.

The man with the crutch then grows irate and bangs his crutch against the bus driver’s cab window.

The 67 bus to West Mersea is supposed to stop at Head Street until 6.43pm.

It is not know what time the video was filmed, but it is still daylight.

Head Street was one of the roads affected by recent changes to bus stops, made by Essex County Council.

Instead of putting bus service numbers on the bus stop flags, a so-called common route corridor has been added to help passengers identify where the buses will be going.

Steve Hartman, operations manager at First Colchester, said: “It is sad and concerning to see our drivers having to endure such aggressive behaviour by members of the public whilst they are trying to undertake their job.

"Nobody in the workplace should have to experience what our driver did in this instance, but sadly instances such as this occur on a regular basis.

“You can see by the comments made on social media by passengers on the bus of how frightened, disgusted and upset they were after experiencing the incident.

"In this instance, our driver did absolutely nothing wrong as he had already picked people up from the bus stop, pulled away and was travelling down the road before being blocked by the person in the video.

"We will be forwarding the evidence onto the police for them to review.”