A BUS company told a packed meeting this week that its service was getting better - but users insisted they had seen no improvements.

Arriva North-East said it had made a noticeable improvement to its services across Redcar and Cleveland after taking on board a number of concerns from people living in the area.

The response followed a public meeting in July, when residents and councillors met Arriva officials.

At the time, passengers living in villages including Boosbeck and Lingdale said they were unhappy with the service provided by the company.

They said workers had to add an extra hour to their morning journeys, because of the unreliability of buses, and travellers were missing important appointments, including visits to the doctor and school exams.

Following the meeting, Arriva agreed to take the concerns on board and suggested a follow-up meeting to review the situation.

But on Wednesday, residents said nothing had changed.

More than 70 people, including Redcar and Cleveland borough councillors, packed into Boosbeck Community Centre to review the problems with Arriva.

Lockwood parish councillor Clive Maidens, who covers the Boosbeck ward, chaired the meeting. He said: "It was not a successful meeting. It was a following-up meeting but Arriva didn't have any answers. Some people got up and walked out.

"Arriva said there had been improvements but we think it is the same old story - buses not turning up. People felt there was nothing being done and felt the meeting was a total waste of time.

"It does not make us feel any better because we organised it."

Jill Ward, who lives in Boosbeck, said: "Seeing the people walk out of the meeting says it all really. Our request for improvements had not been done or even looked at."

But Martin Shier, Arriva North-East's area manager south, who attended the meeting, disagreed.

He said: "Over the past six weeks we have been able to deliver a noticeable improvement in reliability of our services.

"We have made considerable additional resources available to our depots in east Cleveland to ensure that this improvement took place.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and ensure that reliability of services continues to develop."