CHANGES to a bus route will inconvenience passengers, say village residents.

From Sunday, the 722 service from Darlington to Newcastle will operate as the 723 by Nevilles Cross, on the outskirts of Durham City.

Ferryhill resident Harry Bower said: "This means people will not be able to get to the crematorium, the university or the market place."

Peter Crawforth, of Chilton West Residents' Association, said: "It is lowering the standard of service for people in the village. It makes life more difficult for everybody who wants to go to Durham."

Mike Barber, marketing manager for Arriva North-East, said: "The reason we have done it is to improve the reliability of the service, but it is going to mean that one or two people are going to be inconvenienced."

He said the service would still call at the bus station in the centre of Durham.

And he said that passenger numbers for the past week showed not one person travelled from Ferryhill to the crematorium, compared with about 300 to the centre of Durham.

Mr Barber said: "It is not in our interest to change a service that inconveniences the majority of passengers.

"It does not make sound commercial sense and we certainly would not have made the alteration, had there been a good number of people using the service."