Children at a Wirral school have a new-found interest in reading after joining forces with a transport company to transform an old bus into a library.

Egremont Primary School approached Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire for help in creating a new library space to help pupils develop a love of reading.

The company offered the use of one of their older buses which their team of specialist engineers gutted and prepared to make safe for children to use.

The Stagecoach team also worked to refit the bus interior. The innovative bus-library is stationed in the Church Road school playground and will be used by all year groups at the school.

The bus’s colourful design was created by three children at Egremont School whose individual pictures were combined to make up the bus’s vibrant exterior.

The vehicle was painted by Billy Chapman, a specialist bus painter based at Stagecoach’s Gillmoss depot.

He said: “This was a bit of a departure from the usual day job for me, but it was definitely a lot of fun. 

"The children’s creativity definitely shines through and it’s great that they have put their stamp on the bus - it was so important to us that the final product resembled the children’s original visions.

"The school held a design competition for the new bus-library but there was so much enthusiasm from the children that we ended up picking three designs instead of just one!”

Deputy head teacher Kate Wilson said: “We are all absolutely over the moon with our new bus-library.

"When we originally approached the company for help with fundraising, we never dreamed the Stagecoach team would go to such amazing lengths to donate and transform one of their old buses into such a wonderful and creative learning resource.

"The children have all really enjoyed being a part of the project and are thrilled with the new bus-library.”