TEENAGERS living on a Newport estate are helping to launch a campaign to end attacks on buses by stone-throwing youths.

Incidents of stones and other missiles being hurled at Newport Transport buses in city estates have soared in the past year.

The company says the cost of smashed windows and doors totals around £150,000 a year, and community officers from Gwent Police now travel on buses in a bid to end the attacks.

In December a driver needed hospital treatment after being injured in a stoning incident.

Now young people from the Ringland estate have made a film highlighting the dangers of stone attacks.

Twelve teenagers visited the Newport Transport Depot to work on the film and discuss the effects of stone-throwing.

The film will be used with community projects and schools in Newport to highlight the dangers and problems stone-throwing can cause.

Mark Nicholls, Ringland youth development worker, accompanied the young people on the trip.

He said: "It is designed to reduce anti-social behaviour in targeted wards through an educative programme of sports and arts activities."

The initiative is part of a programme delivered through Newport Youth Service in partnership with allied agencies concerned with community safety. It intends to raise young people's awareness of local community issues and the effects of anti-social behaviour on the community as a whole.

The young people were shown around the depot and participated in a workshop in which they were asked to smash a window and look at the consequences from the viewpoint of the passengers, driver and bus company.

Trevor Roberts, managing director at Newport Transport, said they had suffered badly over the past year with stone-throwing and this was a way of getting involved with the community.

He said: "It was a good way of bringing home to the kids how dangerous some of their actions could be for people sat on the bus, drivers and other road users.

"I hope the day was a success, certainly the youngsters were very interested in looking around."

Mr Roberts said that he hoped the video would bring the message home to people of the dangers of throwing stones at buses. The video is 10 minutes long and should be ready to be circulated around schools in three to four weeks.