Darlington council is having 11th hour talks with a bus company which plans to isolate an already deprived estate.

Skerne Park, which was given a boost with Euro-regeneration cash, now faces having its early morning, late night and all its Sunday services slashed in the new year.

Shiftworkers or anyone opting not to drink and drive on a night out will have no alternative public transport.

The cutback and re-routing decision by Arriva will also affect early buses in Whinfield, Mowden and Firth Moor as from January.

Coun Pat Buttle, who represents Skerne Park, said: "I think this is absolutely outrageous. The last bus is about 7.15 in the evening and there will be no morning service before 7am. This will disadvantage a lot of people who have to change buses to get to work.

"The service is very profitable during the day when Arriva is willing to run an eight-minute service. That could well be extended to 15 minutes.

"But at night they are going to leave people stranded and quite frankly the people in Skerne Park are absolutely horrified by it. They are quite prepared to take action against Arriva by picketing the bus garage."

She blamed bus privatisation for the cutbacks, commenting: "It is not about people, not about ability, it is about profits."

She added: "The council is negotiating with Arriva to try to get the services back and all three Skerne Park councillors are lobbying on its behalf in the hope that the decision will be reversed."

Coun Nick Wallis said he had asked Arriva for a meeting in the new year to explore its reasons for the decision.

"It is a very serious decision for people on Skerne Park who either don't have a car or choose to use public transport. And the 5am services are being withdrawn across the town.

Arriva's operations manager, Mr Steve Bird, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

l Low passenger numbers have also led to the axing of some bus services in the Richmond area from next month.

Arriva says the service 29, which currently operates between Darlington and the Tesco store at Catterick Garrison, via Aldbrough St John, Gilling West and Richmond, will be revised to operate between Darlington and Richmond market place only. Most journeys will be retimed and service intervals between Richmond and Gilling West with service 79 will be improved