It is perhaps a sign of the times that the public-transport company Arriva Yorkshire should have thought it necessary to appoint a special liaison officer to persuade pupils to stop wrecking school buses. At one time, surely, responsible upbringing in the home and discipline at school used to do that job.

There has always been a degree of high-spirited behaviour on buses used by school pupils, and some unruliness. However, it is only in recent years that we have seen a worrying increase in incidents of wanton destruction like the recent one in Bradford in which seats were hurled from a bus into the street.

Apart from causing a great deal of stress for the drivers (who no longer have the back-up of conductors) and upsetting other passengers when the pupils share services with the general public, it also adds to the bus companies' costs and is bound eventually to be passed on as higher fares.

In this context, the appointment of Mark Spedding as Arriva Yorkshire's first schools liaison officer is an interesting initiative. He sees his first task as being to make pupils more aware of the problems they can cause other people through vandalism and abusive behaviour.

There are some pupils, of course, who delight in upsetting others, and Mr Spedding's campaign is unlikely to touch them directly. But as he rightly points out, most youngsters want to travel in safety and comfort, and dislike anti-social behaviour taking place around them.

Hopefully, his work with schools will give them the confidence to bring peer pressure to bear on the troublemakers and make bus travel a happier experience for everyone.