A DREAM to save an iconic piece of North-East transport from being sent to the scrapheap has finally come true for passionate campaigners.

A modest single-decker bus built 44 years ago became a piece of Hartlepool’s history as every Christmas the vehicle carried a large Santa’s sleigh complete with reindeers on its roof.

During the 1980s, the former Hartlepool Corporation fleet turned Stagecoach service bus was fitted with a cassette player and speakers to broadcast festive songs for passengers every December.

However, the well-known “Santa Bus” was eventually retired in 1997 and the Bristol RE single-decker was passed on to a dealer who converted it into a mobile social room for Age Concern in East Yorkshire.

Registration OEF 77K’s travels continued as the bus was bought by the Trent Valley Gliding Club in 2001 and was used as a mess room on the airfield at Kirton in Lindsey, North Lincolnshire, until this year.

Its retirement led to a four-week wait for the bus to be scrapped in November, however a group of friends in Hartlepool vowed to save the cherished vehicle by transporting it back to the North-East.

Jonathan Hare, part of the Hartlepool Historic Vehicle Preservation Group (HHVPG), said: “My late grandad used to work on the busses when I was a youngster before he had to take early retirement.

“So for my family and myself the Santa Bus holds special meaning to the whole family.

“So while rescuing a piece of local transport history, I am also rescuing a special piece of family history that holds fond and treasured memories.”

The 1972 Bristol RE bus has been stored in a Paul’s Travel depot in Hartlepool, where the group determined to make the vehicle roadworthy will examine the bus in the New Year.

HHPVG plan to repair the bus before putting it back on the road in 2017 in a bid to return the Santa Bus to Hartlepool’s streets next Christmas.

Mr Hare, 33, added: “The Santa Bus was a much loved and cherished icon of Hartlepool.

“For nearly 25 years it went around the streets in service with Santa and his reindeer on the roof – it was a splendid sight to see.

“You knew it was Christmas when you’d see the Santa bus all decorated and lit up.”

“Children always wanted to go on the Santa Bus, even if the parents had to wait or go on a different service they needed, children always pulled saying they want to go on Santa’s bus.”

The bus is also set to undergo an internal refit after original fittings were lost when a wheelchair lift was installed to meet Age Concern’s needs in late ‘90s.

For more information on OEF 77K’s restoration, visit the Hartlepool Historic Vehicle Preservation Group Facebook page.