PUPILS at a County Durham comprehensive will be the first to use US-style yellow school buses as part of a pilot scheme.

Three modern 68-seat buses will be used to transport 193 pupils from Sherburn Village to Belmont Comprehensive School, near Durham.

Durham County Council is introducing the vehicles on Monday, instead of using private contractors.

If the scheme is successful, it may spread to other parts of the county.

Councillor Neil Foster, cabinet member for education, said the buses were built to carry young people safely.

They include a closed circuit television system and have lap and diagonal seat belts as well as enhanced breaks, lamps, mirrors and fuel tank protection.

The buses have a high off- the-ground passenger compartment on top of a sturdy steel chassis to put children above the point of impact of most accidents.

The buses follow the completion of a research project commissioned by the council in light of spiralling school transport costs, which soared from £7.5m in 1998-99 to about £12m this year.

Coun Foster said: "Our research project, which included tapping into the practical experience of two of only a handful of education authorities which already use this sort of bus, showed there were potential benefits.

"For instance it has been found that these purpose-built buses greatly improve pupil behaviour by giving a sense of ownership through allocating each young person their own seat and allocating specific areas of the bus to different age groups."

The council already runs its own small-scale bus operation for its social services clients and will use that department's expertise and drivers to operate and manage the school bus pilot scheme.

Coun Foster said: "We shall be monitoring the new school bus operation regularly to assess its progress and will carry out a detailed review after two years when we shall be consulting the school, pupils, parents and other stakeholders for their views about the future of the scheme.

"We are hoping this pilot scheme will give us a win-win situation by offering better value for money for the council and its council taxpayers together with better and safer transport for pupils."