A COUNCILLOR has lodged a complaint after he said he witnessed a woman with a guide dog being barred from a bus.

Bus operator First Essex said it is taking the alleged incident in East Street, Colchester, “very seriously” and said the driver will be interviewed.

Simon Crow, Conservative councillor for the town’s Castle ward, said the driver refused to open the bus doors to the blind woman, despite her banging on them.

He said: “There was a woman on the bus waiting to get off when it stopped and a woman with a guide dog was a couple of yards behind me.

“As I walked past I heard the woman with the guide dog shouting, I looked around, the bus was stationary, the doors were shut.

“He refused to open them when she banged on them.

“The driver just shook his head at her and started to drive off.

“I pointed and mouthed at him to let her on, he shook his head and drove off.”

Mr Crow added: “I couldn’t believe it.

“I asked her what happened so I could hear it in her words and I wondered if she lived in the ward.

“The woman told me she held her hand out to indicate to the driver that she wanted to board the bus as he pulled into the bus stop alongside her, but he obviously wasn’t willing to keep the doors open an extra second or two to allow her on board and closed them just as she reached them.

“She said she was visiting from Harwich for the morning and I thought what an awful end to her visit to the town.

“The woman said it be another hour to wait for a bus.”

Mr Crow said he advised the woman where she could go nearby for a cold drink and to wait.

He added: “It is one of those things you don’t expect to see and with the guide dog, that just made it absolutely shocking.”

Mr Crow, who tweeted First Essex about the driver’s “appalling behaviour” shortly after Monday afternoon’s incident, was in return sent a link by a company representative to log his complaint.

Steve Hartman, operations manager at First Colchester, told The Gazette: “We are taking this accusation seriously, this is certainly not the kind of service I would expect from any member of our driving team.

“We will undertake an investigation and will be interviewing the relevant driver concerned over the alleged incident.”