BUS drivers in East Lancashire are set to walk out for the next 12 weeks in a row over pay, it has been confirmed.

Unite union members at Rossendale Transport are unhappy at a 1.3 per cent pay deal, imposed last October.

And drivers have voted for ‘discontinous action’, over a three-month period, to put pressure on management.

Cathy Rudderforth, Unite East Lancashire organiser, said union members would undertake a three-hour stoppage every eight days.

She said: “The drivers are extremely unhappy about the fact that the company has incurred quite a large amount of expenditure on other things.

“Recently a new fuel management system has been introduced and a number of new buses have been added to the fleet.

“But you also have the fact that Transdev’s Burnley and Pendle drivers, who were already on £2 an hour more than Rossendale’s, have been given a three per cent pay rise.

“It would have been appropriate to at least match that because now the differential between the drivers is even higher.”

Insiders say that only just over half of the company’s drivers belong to the union and disruption may not be widespread.

The firm runs several key services in East Lancashire including the popular 464 bus, from Accrington to Rochdale via Haslingden, Rawtenstall and Bacup.

Alistair Nuttall, the company’s managing director, has said he is still willing to enter further negotiations with the union.

But with no discussions currently pencilled in the industrial action, which will last for 12 weeks, is set to commence on February 6.