PASSENGERS living in east Durham villages are being left stranded because of a shortage of bus drivers.

The once-an-hour Arriva service 22 between Durham, Wheatley Hill and Hartlepool, often does not run because of the shortages.

Now a local councillor is calling on the firm to tackle the problem and ensure that communities are not left without vital public transport.

Morris Nicholls, Durham county councillor for the Thornley ward, regularly uses buses and has suffered himself.

He said: "I know from first-hand experience that there have been many times when the bus has not just been late, it has not turned up at all.

"It only runs once an hour, so any missing bus causes huge problems and inconvenience. I have had lots of complaints from local people, including pensioners travelling to hospital, who have been left waiting an hour, and people who have missed appointments.

"I have spoken to Arriva who say they are very short of drivers at the moment and can't cover all their services. What a mess to be in. If this is the case then surely one of the priorities should be those communities which only get one bus an hour.''

Arriva North-East operations director Iain McInroy said the firm had been in regular contact with Coun Nicholls about local buses.

"The company has undertaken an extensive recruitment campaign that attracted a significant number of applications.

"This is helping us to address the temporary shortage of bus drivers which caused some services to be disrupted.

"I would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience they experienced.''