ANGRY Blackburn bus drivers issued a 'behave or else' warning to rude passengers.

They threatened to take the buses off the roads unless passengers improved their manners.

Bus services were out of action for 30 minutes while drivers held a union meeting to discuss the conduct of passengers during the overtime ban by Darwen bus drivers.

And the outcome of the meeting was a broadside for passengers in Blackburn and Darwen.

Dough Thornhill, Blackburn branch secretary of the transport union, said: "If passengers cannot keep quiet, they'll have to face the possibility that they won't get their buses."

Blackburn bus drivers were upset that they came in for criticism from passengers hit by the Darwen busmen's action.

"Busmen in Blackburn have been carrying on under pressure during the Darwen men's dispute - yet we have been taking all the criticism from the public, " said Mr Thornhill.

"The union meeting today was forced by the people who travel on the No 8 main road Blackburn-Darwen bus. This service has been badly cut by the Darwen drivers' overtime ban, and the public has taken it out on us."

More than 150 men were at the union meeting in Railway Road and buses were stopped from 10am to 10.30am.