ONE of Britain's most famous high street retailers has called on its company car drivers to remove metal bull bars from vehicles. The request from Marks & Spencer comes in the same week as four out of five British motorists have condemned the fitting of bull bars to vehicles, according to a survey by Cowie Interleasing of 300 company car and private motorists.

Now Cowie Interleasing has said it will persuade its customers' company car drivers not to have metal bull bars fitted unless they are vital for the job involved. An estimated 600,000 vehicles in the UK are fitted with the rigid metal crashbars.

The European Community is considering a ban on bull bars as part of a series of vehicle safety measures. Pending this decision, the British Government 'talked out' a move to ban bull bars last month (Fleet News April 12). A week later Jersey introduced its own metal bull bar ban (Fleet News April 19). Meanwhile, some manufacturers have removed metal bull bars as an option and insurance companies are refusing to cover vehicles which have them fitted.