HUNDREDS of selfish bus drivers are flouting a new rule aimed at cutting congestion and pollution in Glasgow city centre.

In just two months 716 bus drivers were caught with their engines idling.

Three months ago, the city council launched a crackdown on buses with new rules that meant they could only stop at designated stops and for as long as it took to set down and pick up passengers.

The move was introduced to stop buses causing chaos by idling at the kerb with their engines running or double parking - putting passengers' safety at risk.

All the city's 41 operators were contacted and told of the new restrictions.

Today the council's traffic operations manager Donald McKinven revealed that during July and August there were 716 abuses of the rule and warning letters were sent out to 12 bus operators.

The remaining 29 firms got letters thanking them for their co-operation.

Mr McKinven said the monitoring period has now come to an end and in future any firm ignoring the new rules risks being reported to the Traffic Commissioner and having their licence withdrawn.

He added: "The new condition followed a pilot scheme last year which looked at the movement of buses. One of the things that came out of it was a lot of buses were abusing how long they waited at bus stops.

"If a bus sits longer than it should and another bus arrives at the stop, it has to double park so congestion problems escalate.

"Rather than come in with a heavy hand straight away, we made it known we would be monitoring buses to see if they were complying or not.

"In the first two months there were a considerable number of abuses but there is now a downward trend.

"We will now look to see if there are any operators who are blatantly ignoring the new condition and if there are the chances are we will write to the Traffic Commissioner and get her advice."

A spokeswoman for bus operator First in Glasgow said: "We welcome any measure that would help reduce congestion in the city centre and would aid in the operation of the public transport network.

"We will continue to work in partnership with the city council and SPT to introduce more streamline bus priority routes to reduce the volume of cars travelling into the city."