RUSH hour traffic was brought to a standstill on The Rock in Bury on Monday after a bus collided with scaffolding erected around the frontage of the Black Bull public house.

It looked as if the scaffolding could well collapse and police cordoned off the area for five hours whilst workmen from Bury council, helped by the fire brigade who provided emergency lighting at dusk, tackled the knotty problem.

New manageress Angela Nicholson heard a loud bang just after four o'clock before an apologetic driver walked into the pub to tell her what had happened.

"He said he was leaving the bus stop when a lady flagged him down. He turned and stopped to collect her when the accident happened" explained Angela.

"He told me he was going to reverse the bus but I said no way" said Angela who saw straight away that the scaffolding was likely to collapse if the vehicle was moved.

Police endorsed this view and kept traffic and members of the public well clear of operations.

Now Angela, who is having the popular pub refurbished and re-roofed, is faced with the scaffolding being re-erected and the work taking longer than expected.

However she is glad that damage to the building appears to be minimal and that no one was hurt in what was potentially a dangerous situation.

Angela and her family have only been in the pub for a month.

"What a welcome, we were the centre of attention" said Angela who wants to make an impact on Bury but not quite in the manner of Monday's episode!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.