Bus passengers have been left furious after the prospect of being left with no buses on certain routes across the North East, as drivers are set to go on strike.

Go North East drivers have confirmed they will walk out from Saturday (September 30) to October 6 as well as from October 14 to 20.

This announcement comes weeks after 98 per cent of 1,300 workers from its six depots in Sunderland, Washington, Gateshead, Hexham, Consett and Percy Main voted in favour of strike action.

Read more: Teenager killed in Spennymoor crash died of misadventure

In the aftermath of strike action being announced, bus passengers have berated Go North East for the treatment of its drivers, with one person saying: "Get it sorted. Give your staff what they want and look after them," while another added: "Disgraceful, this will isolate a lot of communities and individuals."

Meanwhile, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Go North East need to take a long hard look at themselves and how appallingly they’ve treated their workforce.”

“Our members will have the full support of their union as they take to the picket line in their fight for a fair pay deal.”

Get more content including the stories that matter to your community from The Northern Echo for just £1 for 1 month for a limited time only here.

Unite regional officer Dave Telford added: “Unite has a laser-like focus on the jobs, pay and conditions of its members – we will use every resource at our disposal to bring victory to the workers.”

However, Go North East business director, Ben Maxfield, said, “The two most talked about inflation measures, CPI and RPI are currently running at 6.4 per cent and nice per cent respectively.  Our offer of 9.11 per cent beats both these figures and means our driver pay package will be among the very best in the region.

“Unite is claiming - without any attempt at justification - that drivers have been offered a below inflation pay increase.  The bottom line is that this simply isn’t true, which means that Unite would be striking for something they have already been offered.

“It’s not in our interests, or our passengers’ interests, to have a strike.  Unfortunately, it appears some elements within Unite are hell-bent on this course of action, but we believe most of our drivers will want to see successful ACAS negotiations.

“Of course, we value our drivers highly, and want to do the best for them.  We never take them for granted, and we will be entering talks – if Unite accepts them – in that spirit”.