BUS company bosses summoned to a public meeting about controversial changes to town centre services have promised to consider running different routes.

Residents of Newton Aycliffe had complained about changes made by Arriva to its local services over the past few months.

Last week, at a public meeting in Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre, the company's commercial director, Liz Esnouf, said all the changes had been made for practical or commercial reasons.

But Ms Esnouf said that if residents demanded routes to fill any gap in service - and they were found to be commercially viable - the company would consider them.

More than 80 residents raised concerns about changes to at least four services that run through the town, which have made it difficult to travel to Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Stockton.

To travel to Newcastle, passengers must now change at Durham, increasing the standard fare by £2.25.

Residents in parts of the town - particularly the Bluebell Close area where many senior citizens live - say they now have to walk a mile to catch a bus to Bishop Auckland.

They also complained that the changes were poorly publicised.

Ms Esnouf said user numbers were so low on the old services they made no money and the company received no Government subsidies to keep the service going.

Changes were also needed in response to alterations in road structure at Chilton and the closure of the high-level bridge in Newcastle.

She said they were designed to improve overall service and had noticeably increased punctuality levels and boosted user numbers.

A spokesman for Arriva yesterday confirmed that the company had tried to publicise the new routes and would look at ways of doing it better in the future.

He said: "Changes are not made without reason and, as Ms Esnouf said, we will consider additional routes, if they are commercially viable."

Great Aycliffe Town Council had called the public meeting in response to local dissatisfaction.

Council leader Malcolm Iveson said the council would look to publish up-to-date timetables in its newsletter and invited Arriva to work more closely with them for any future plans