CLASSICAL music will play in Walthamstow bus station to deter schoolchildren from hanging around upsetting the public.

The idea is not to soothe them but to bore them out of bad behaviour.

It is one of the initiatives to be launched by Travelsafe, a police and council project to make public transport safer and help people feel safe when using trains, buses and the Underground in Waltham Forest.

The team identified the main issues by interviewing commuters at the travel hubs, and found several people at Walthamstow bus station were unnerved by gangs of school pupils hanging around.

Sian Hassler, the police partnerships and operations manager for the council, said Travelsafe would report back to the schools and try to encourage young people to move on by playing classical music in the bus shelter next month.

She said: "The music we have chosen is not the brightest because we do not want people particularly to enjoy it, so they move on."

Ms Hassler said the station was fully equipped with CCTV cameras, 85 per cent of buses now had CCTV and cameras were installed in all new buses.

She talked about Travelsafe at the police community consultative group meeting last week when a local resident said he did not travel on the upper deck of buses because of the risk of being robbed.

Borough Commander Mark Benbow said: "We recognise that we get robberies on buses and criminals use buses to get around. We are going to have a few high visibility operations on the buses to make them safe, so you should see an increase in police on buses."

Ms Hassler said Travelsafe aims to improve the environment of train, bus and Underground stations, increase the number of police there and work with British Transport Police, Safer Neighbourhoods teams and other relevant bodies to host crime prevention initiatives.

Travelsafe has been giving out information and accessories to help people protect themselves from crime when using public transport from day to day, and the police are mounting high visibility operations.

A search arch can be deployed at Underground stations to find knives and weapons, and police can detect crime by standing on a raised plinth to study the crowd with binoculars.

Overgrown trees and bushes have been cut back at Highams Park station to increase visibility, and local Safer Neighbourhoods teams and street wardens will work to deter crime at all stations.