BUS services were temporarily suspended in some areas of Newport this week after bus windows were smashed by people throwing stones.

Newport Bus stopped its services to Alway and Ringland – after anti-social behaviour resulted in damage to three of their vehicles on Monday.

A spokesman for Newport Bus said that “a number” of windows were smashed on their buses.

The spokesman, who confirmed there had been no injuries to drivers or passengers, said: “In the interest of customer and staff safety, services were suspended from serving the estates directly for a period of two hours.”

A taxi company has since announced plans to stop evening jobs in Alway and Ringland.

The owner of Roman Taxis, Dale Clayton, said his company will now only carry out jobs in those areas from 6am to 6pm.

He said: “We will only go to Ringland and Alway during those times that I’ve said. If a taxi driver gets a window smashed that’s about £1,000 out of our pockets. It’s unacceptable.

“We will do jobs in the day time at those times but if we have one incident we will stop going to Alway and Ringland completely.”

He added: “We’re taking action because we have no other choice.”

Concerns of Alway and Ringland were first raised in April, when taxi drivers warned they were considering “boycotting” the areas.

At the time, some taxi drivers claimed the two areas were becoming “no-go areas”, due to frequent incidents of rocks being thrown at cars.

Taxi driver David Bryant previously told the Argus: “It’s happening all the time. They don’t care what’s thrown just as long as they damage the car.”

Police sergeant Mervyn Priest said they are investigating the recent incident.

He said: “The first incident happened at around 5.10pm on Chepstow Road, the second at around 6.55pm on Hendre Farm Drive and the third at around 8.25pm on Aberthaw Avenue.

“We are working with Newport Bus to view their CCTV footage to identify those responsible. Officers are patrolling the local areas and will be speaking to the local community to identify the offenders.”

“Criminal damage will not be tolerated but especially not when it could potentially seriously injury the drivers of these buses or their passengers. If you have any information, please call 101 quoting log 356 31/87/17.”