FRUSTRATED residents have renewed their bid to have a popular Darlington bus route reinstated.

Members of Branksome Residents' Association have collected 240 signatures on a petition calling for the return of the 25A Stagecoach service.

The buses used to run clockwise and anti-clockwise circular routes through the Branksome area, but nearly two years ago the service was cut to a single direction only.

In May, residents submitted a 108-signature petition to Stagecoach asking for the route to be reinstated, but had no luck.

Sam Buckle, chairman of the association, said the changes had made life difficult for many elderly residents in the area and people felt strongly that another attempt should be made to appeal to the bus company.

He said: "A lot of people who live around here are in their seventies, eighties and nineties and are now struggling with the bus service."

Mr Buckle said the association had been collecting the 240 new signatures over the past two months, and had sent copies of the petition to Stagecoach, the borough council and the offices of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister.

Coun Nick Wallis, the council's cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "Over the years we have talked to Stagecoach. We will continue to try, but this is a commercial service and there isn't really a direct role for the local authority to play in this matter."

John Fraser, acting divisional director of Stagecoach in Darlington, refused to comment.