Rowdy, unruly, and threatening behaviour by yobs on buses in Lancashire will no longer be tolerated.

That's the stern message from the county's safer travel unit, which is pulling out all the stops to ensure passengers and drivers feel safer.

The unit is setting up a new telephone hot-line for people to report bad behaviour and youngsters who don't mend their ways could be banned from buses for months at a time.

Rick Wilson, Lancashire County Council's safer travel unit manager, said: "Feeling safe is everyone's right.

"Drivers and members of the public can now report loutishness within minutes, whereas it often used to take up to a week for an incident to be reported and recorded.

"In the case of school buses, the new reporting system will mean poor behaviour being reported to the school before the child even arrives at the school gates."

The hot-line is part of an Anti-Social Behaviour on Buses (ASBOB) scheme, which has the support of all schools and bus companies in the county.

Mr Wilson added: "Images from CCTV cameras will also be sent to the school before the end of the day.

"Anyone behaving badly travelling to and from school will firstly have a written warning sent to their parents.

"If the behaviour continues we will seek an acceptable behaviour contract with the help of the head teacher of the school involved.

"As a last resort we could exclude a child from the bus for a period of eight to 13 weeks and they will only be allowed back on after a full review of their behaviour at school."

Peter Bell, managing director of Preston Bus Company, said he believed the scheme was a very positive initiative and a way of giving passengers a greater feeling of security alongside existing CCTV equipment.

Jim Hustler, director of Fishwick Buses, Leyland, said: "We operate several school services and generally there are very few problems.

"If an incident did occur we would make use of this system as it would certainly speed things up."

The scheme is being launched in the summer months when schools are on holiday so that drivers, bus companies and call centre workers can receive training during the quiet period.

Mr Wilson said that there would be no additional cost to council tax-payers in implementing the scheme.

The new ASBOB number is 0845 0530040.