OFFICIALS behind a plan to ban buses from a town centre are reassuring local people that it will not cause disruption.

Middlesbrough Borough Council, Middlesbrough Town Centre Company and Arriva North East have issued a statement on the proposed changes to the town centre just before they take effect on Sunday.

The plans, which have been subject to consultations in recent weeks, involve taking buses out of a key central section of Newport and Corporation Road to allow for improvements for pedestrians.

Les Southerton, the town centre company's chief executive, said the public's needs will be central to the experiment.

"We will look at how the traffic circulation system works, how bus services operate in detail and see how the pedestrians in the town centre react to the newly pedestrianised area," he said.

As part of the experiment, Arriva North East, the town's major bus operator, is changing some of its services.

It proposes to operate nine bus services currently using the bus station from stands elsewhere in the town centre.

A further three services will use the bus station only in one direction of travel.

There will be free transport for the elderly and the disabled between the Town Hall/Cleveland Centre area and the bus station.

l From Sunday, there will be other changes to bus services operating in the town centre.

To compensate for the closure of Newport Road to buses, there will be diversions via Wilson Street or Borough Road towards the bus station. The number 35 Stagecoach service will terminate in Hartlepool centre on Sundays, early mornings and late evenings, but extend to Hartlepool Marina from Monday to Saturday.

A new X9 service will run hourly, off peak, between Middlesbrough, Seaton Carew, Hartlepool and the Marina.

Further details are in a leaflet available from the bus station information office