Bus seat smeared with 'poo' for over three months
A commuter has been locked in a bizarre three-month battle to get poo removed from an Arriva bus seat.
Louise Walker, from Runcorn, Cheshire, first noticed that the seat in front of her was smeared with what she believes is faeces in November - and claims she quickly notified the company.
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Since then, the 29-year-old student nurse has seen the unpleasant stain three more times and has bombarded the transport firm with photos of the mess in a bid to get it cleaned.
Louise said: "On the 15th of November I got on the bus, sat down and noticed the stain. It looked and smelt like poo – I contacted Arriva and they didn't get back to me.
"I'm a student nurse so I am used to stuff like that but I was nearly sick – it was the smell –I had to swap seats."
Second year student Louise, who travels to Royal Liverpool University Hospital by public transport, claims she was shocked to get on the same bus two weeks later and see the muck was still there.
Louise said: "I always tend to go to the same seat if it's not taken and the second time I saw it I couldn't believe it.
"Because it was still there about a fortnight later I got in touch with them again and they said that they said that they were going to clean it.
"It's a health risk - I've got a sister who is seven and I take her on the bus sometimes.
"Sometimes kids get on the bus and they will go and run to a seat, they could have touched that and then put their hands in their mouth – there's loads of health risks.
"I don't know if it's dog faeces that someone has stood in and then wiped their shoe on the seat – I dread to think how it got there really."
Louise alleges she complained to Arriva again on January 19 when she spotted the stain for the third time, taking pictures on her mobile phone to highlight the problem.
And on Monday (January 30), the student claims she again boarded the same bus to find that the smelly substance had apparently still not been dealt with by the firm.
Louise said: "They pick up rubbish but I don't think they clean them and actually wash them properly.
"They're increasing fares because we're getting these fancy new buses but they're just not looking after them properly.
"They should learn from this and when they receive complaints about unclean buses in the future, or any complaints, they should do something."
A spokesperson from Arriva said: "Arriva are very sorry to our customers that this stain was not removed promptly, and agree that this is not acceptable.
"We have launched an investigation with our cleaning company and depot to ensure this does not happen again.
"We would like to thank Louise for making us aware of this and appreciate her taking time out to keep us informed – something she should not have had to do."
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