A BUS service is to cease calling at stops on a village green following ten incidents in the area during 2004.

Members of Gainford and Langton Parish Council heard that Arriva had applied to vary the route of its 75 and 76 service between Darlington and Barnard Castle from March 20. This will mean buses keeping to the Main Road through the village - where they are not allowed to stop midway for safety reasons - rather than negotiating the single track road at the Cross Keys and going via The Green. The incidents range from buses being damaged by wooden stakes at the edge of the grass verges, which cannot be seen at night, to obstruction by other vehicles, making tight corners impossible.

Coun Brian Biddiscombe had written to the county council without reply, leaving him to suspect that there was not much that could be done to halt the proposed change.

"Arriva has ignored our point about schoolchildren having to wait on Main Road," he said, although he was reminded that the children already got off the buses at the same spot on the way home.

Although not due to change until March, the service has been running via Main Road this week owing to drainage work closing the road on one side of The Green. But Coun Biddiscombe said one driver had not known about the roadworks and had had to cut round Low Green, churning up the grass in the process. Others had travelled along Main Road without calling at the Lord Nelson island stop, which left one resident half an hour late for an appointment in Darlington.

However, after an urgent call to Arriva on Tuesday, the clerk, Sybil Nelson, seemed to have sorted matters out.

"I have spoken to the company and been assured that drivers have been told that they must service the Lord Nelson bus stand," she said.

They have also been instructed not to go round by The Green until the roadworks are finished, which will probably be today.