A MOTHER from Llay has said she has had enough of impatient and rude drivers shouting abuse at her daughter's mini bus driver.

Vickie Davies, 35, lives on Eighth Avenue with her daughter Mika, 6, who sufferers from severe learning difficulties, and who is picked up each morning by a driver to take her to Y Canol at Ysgol Heulfan.

Miss Davies said that while the road is sometimes quite tight and narrow, the mini bus does not cause an obstruction whereby other road users can't get passed and this was no different last Wednesday, when the latest of many similar incidents took place.

She said: "There are sometimes cars parked on the street, but last Wednesday, this wasn't the case and I came out to hear the driver being given an absolute earful by an elderly gentleman in his car.

"He was asking him, not very politely, why he couldn't park anywhere else.

"I couldn't help myself and had to give him a piece of mind back and I asked him where else does he want the driver to stop to pick my disabled daughter up?"

Miss Davies said many of the motorists travelling down Eighth Avenue at that time of the morning are on the school run themselves and questioned how the three minutes or so it takes for the driver to put Mika on the bus was that much of an inconvenience to some people.

She added: "What people don't realise is children like Mika can hear what is being said, even though they may not be able to respond to it themselves."

Miss Davies recalled one particular morning last year when a driver was that impatient, his vehicle clipped the ramp the driver uses to help children get on and off the minibus.

She said: "There are many repeat offenders so if you have that much of an issue with a disabled child being picked up off her own doorstep, just knock on my door.

"Everyone in the village knows Mika, and everyone knows she gets picked up every morning, so I really wish people would give her and her driver the respect they deserve."

The mini bus service taking disabled children to and from schools in the county is one of nine such vehicles operated by Prestige Taxi's and a spokesman for the company said it was a sad and all too common occurrence that their drivers suffered verbal abuse.

The spokesman said "We constantly have problems with impatient motorists beeping their horns and shouting at the drivers.

"The vehicles also have signs on them requesting other road users to give them at least eight feet space at the rear for access purposes and more often than not, these are ignored.

"Unfortunately, if drivers came in and reported every incident like this to us, they'd be here all day."