A bus company is at loggerheads with police after one of its drivers was cleared of dangerous driving.

Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, said the case should never have been brought to court.

He said the trial had pushed relations between drivers and Brighton police to a low ebb.

Mr French, who recently launched a campaign to free-up bus lanes in the city, said: "There is already ill feeling among drivers that police in Brighton are not enforcing traffic regulations.

"This case certainly hasn't improved relations."

The driver, Michael Castle, had been accused of deliberately ramming a car after it overtook him in a bus lane.

Mr Castle was said to have been so annoyed he pulled out of the bus stop and smashed into the white Vauxhall which was waiting at traffic lights.

Hove Crown Court heard he allegedly rammed the car so hard into railings the windows smashed and the wheels lifted off the ground.

But Mr Castle, 46, of Marlow Road, Brighton, denied dangerous driving and was acquitted by a jury yesterday. He was awarded costs.

John Edmunds was driving friends along Western Road when the crash happened in June last year.

He told the court: "There was a bus parked on my left which was stationary and I pulled out to overtake it.

"When I had partly overtaken it, the driver hooted. He hit my rear wing. He drove into the side of me. It was a shock."

Mr Castle has worked for Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company for 20 years.

Mr French said afterwards: "The motorist should not have been in Western Road at that time, yet police pursued charges against my driver.

Brighton police said that while they investigated the incident, it was the Crown Prosecution Service which took the decision.

Police spokeswoman Carolyn Bond said: "We work closely with the bus company and drivers when they have problems."