A YOUNG Salisbury boy was left stranded at school, after a bus driver said his ticket was invalid and drove off without him.

Now, the boy's parents want to warn others the same thing could happen to their child - despite a Wilts & Dorset policy stipulating that children aged under-18 should never be refused transport.

Twelve-year-old Alex Cooper was meant to get the bus home to Bemerton from St Joseph's, in Laverstock.

His mum, Clare, had even gone with him to buy a return ticket that morning.

But when Alex got on the bus to come home, the driver said his ticket was invalid, and he screwed it up and asked him to leave.

"She wasn't very nice about it - Alex was very distressed," said Mrs Cooper (33), from the family home in Rambridge Crescent.

"Fortunately, he managed to find a teacher and tell her what had happened.

"She told him to go to the main office and get some money to buy another ticket, while she went to tell the driver to wait.

"Alex can only have been gone a few minutes but, when he came running back out, the bus had gone."

Mrs Cooper rang Wilts & Dorset that night and was asked to put her complaint in writing.

"I still hadn't heard anything a week-and-a-half later, so I rang again," she said.

"Apparently, the driver had simply forgotten to wait for Alex by the time all the other kids had got on the bus.

"They were very dismissive - all I wanted was an apology."

Mrs Cooper said Alex was no longer happy about travelling on the bus and she and her husband were even thinking about moving him to a school closer to home.

"I'm really worried it could happen again and I want to warn other parents that the same thing could happen to their children," she said.

"Luckily, Alex was left at school, but it could have been the middle of nowhere."

Chris Gordon, operations manager for Wilts & Dorset in Salisbury, said he was sorry for any upset caused.

He added: "It seems there was some problem with the ticket, so the driver asked him to wait while she saw the other children on to the bus.

"But it seems he went back inside, so, by the time everybody else had boarded, he wasn't there.

"The driver just assumed he no longer needed a lift and pulled off, with the result that, when he came back out, the bus had gone.

"It's not satisfactory but it was purely an accident and not an attempt deliberately to leave him behind.

"We certainly don't refuse transport to under-18s."