PARENTS were horrified to learn children had been taken to school on a bus strewn with broken glass from a smashed window pane.

Pupils at Wigmore School were told by the bus driver to stay away from the glass, which one mother said was "all over" the seats and floor near to the broken window.

Susan Moore, who's daughter Abbie was a passenger on the Lugg Valley Travel service from Shobdon on Wednesday morning (December 11), said the service wasn't good enough.

"The window had shattered, there was glass all over the seats, all over the floor," she added.

"If we had known about the state of the bus we, as parents, wouldn't have let the kids get on.

"If it happened on the way to collect the children to take to Wigmore High School he should have stopped, rang his office, told them what had happened and got another bus out to him.

"Children's safety is the top priority while travelling to and from school."

The bus company defended what they said was the driver's decision not to request another bus due to the time it would take for a different vehicle to arrive.

The firm's operations manager said instead of waiting for a replacement vehicle, which could have taken up to 50 minutes, the driver decided to finish the route.

"All I can really explain is when the driver checked the vehicle before he took it out, all appeared to be okay," Ian Davies said.

"All coaches are fitted fitted with safety glass, it's a requirement, double-glazed safety glass.

"The inner skin of the glass cracked for some unknown reason and because the safety glass shatters into very small pieces, it wouldn't have cut anyone.

"The driver decided to continue and asked children to move away as the outer skin was there."

The vehicle was taken out of service as investigations into what happened continue.