PEOPLE living in moorland villages should not be second-class citizens when it comes to public transport.

This was the claim of a parish councillor after hearing that some local buses were nearing the end of their useful life. Meanwhile, Danby councillors were told, the national park's Moorsbus service ran modern vehicles, mainly used by tourists.

Coun Linda Grout said all rural buses should be run by the North York Moors national park.

"Why should locals get inferior old buses while tourists get first-class coaches?" she asked. "If the Moorsbus was extended, we would have a first-class service in this area."

Councillors considered a response from North Yorkshire County Council on various transport issues.

One concerned fears about school buses after an East Cleveland firm was found to be running buses with faults.

The county head of environmental enhancement, Mr Chris Millns, outlined the precautions and checks made on operators. He said Skelton Coaches had five county council contracts up to the February half-term, three for Stokesley school. There had been one complaint in the previous six months on vehicle safety.

But in response to concerns, the council asked the Freight Transport Association to check the vehicles and this highlighted various faults.

Mr Millns said the frequency and quality of checks was now being increased.

On public bus services in the Danby and Castleton area, Mr Millns said there had been no recent complaints from the county passenger group.

But he admitted vehicles run by Abbey Coaches were at the upper end of the age limit allowed for local buses.

On the question of the safety of school runs to Stokesley in bad weather, he said there needed to be some control to ensure journeys were not cancelled unnecessarily.

The parish council had long complained about the fact that the Castleton-Stokesley road was not fully gritted in winter due to different local authority boundaries.

It had also voiced concerns that drivers started school-run journeys even in bad weather to ensure they were paid.

Mr Millns said: "Payment in all circumstances could lead to this happening more and more. But we should not be putting pressure on operators to run the service when it is not appropriate."

It was agreed to invite Mr Millns to the meeting on May 2.