Overweight bus drivers in Hull have been ordered to get fit and lose weight amid fears they will break their seats.

The Stagecoach bus company says overweight drivers will be redeployed to work in other areas until they are lighter. The firm says there is a health and safety risk for drivers weighing more than 20 stone. An adviser for the company, which employs 350 people in Hull including 300 drivers, will discuss a weight loss programme with them.

Company spokesman Tony Fieldsend said the new policy was in line with safety regulations on new seats it has fitted on its buses. He said: "The background to this is that the seats we have fitted on our buses have a weight specification of 23 stone for some and less for others. Because of health and safety and because we recognise we have a duty of care to people, a letter has gone to everyone explaining what we are doing. We have done it in conjunction with the union Unite and it is in agreement. Heaven forbid if a driver in charge of 70 people had an accident."

However, one Stagecoach driver, who did not want to be named, said: "I think it is disgusting. It is certainly discrimination. This will affect quite a lot of drivers. Some may be just a stone over the limit but others are five or six stone over the limit. If you are overweight you will be given a time period to lose it and will have to work elsewhere until you have."

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Henry admitted his weight may have been a cause of the "incident".

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