Councillor shouted at by coach driver parked on pavement at crossing

A councillor for the city centre ward was ‘shouted and pointed at’ by a coach driver after he pulled them up for parking in one of the city’s busiest pedestrian spaces to pick up tourists.

Cllr Finlay McFarlane was left “so aghast” as a bus mounted the pavement outside Registrar House at the east end of Princes Street before reversing while people crossed the road on Wednesday morning.

He said the driver argued he “had no choice” but to park there to collect hotel guests – but added his actions could have left someone “very seriously hurt”.

The councillor said he would be in touch with the Germany-based coach operator – which he remarked had “ironically” been given an ‘operator of the year’ award – to “ensure that people’s safety is never endangered in this way again”.

He said: “I thought it was important to speak to the driver myself and ask them if they were aware that what they had done was incredibly dangerous and that reversing out of the pavement could seriously risk peoples public safety”.

However, Cllr McFarlane said the driver “responded by shouting and pointing in my face that it was ‘no problem at all, he would only be there five minutes’”.

He pointed out the council had put enhancements on Regent Road precisely to give tour buses and coaches better facilities – just minutes away.

“Someone could have been very seriously hurt,” he added. “Imagine if someone with visual impairment crossed at the signal directly into the reversing coach. It is utterly unacceptable.

“Alongside other pedestrians crossing I was so aghast at the entitlement of the coach driver and what I was witnessing.

“The irony of ‘coach operator of the year 2014’ being emblazoned across the side of the vehicle as it reversed backwards into pedestrians crossing at the green man and oncoming traffic was not lost on me.”

Coach operator Jürgens Reisen was contacted for comment.

by Donald Turvill, Local Democracy Reporter.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.