A GROUP of women who work for an ironing service are distraught after a bus company stopped the daytime service to their homes - forcing them to walk the last three miles.

The three employees of Iron Maidens, based in Sacriston, County Durham, are pressing Go North East for the daytime service to the village of Esh Winning, where they live, to be reinstated.

Since April, the last direct service in the morning has been at 8.30am, and service does not resume until 6.30pm.

Karen Hodgson, 37, said: "I am able to get to work in the morning, but they have cancelled the daytime service back to my village.

"The bus terminates at Langley Park, and I have to walk the last three to four miles, which is about an hour on my day. It would only be ten minutes on the bus.

"I have a 12-year-old son, which means I am not able to get back in time for the end of his school."

Veronica Dodd said: "By the time I get to Esh Winning, I still have another 20 minutes to walk to get home. I am 53, and I don't like to walk that far anyway."

Shirley Davison, 45, said: "They said they stopped the buses in the day because there were too few passengers. But they run the service at night and on Sundays when no one uses it."

The workers said the only way to get home by bus was to travel to Durham first, and then double back to Esh Winning with Arriva. That journey could take up to an hour if they missed a connection and was at an added cost.

Iron Maidens' manager Simmone Reay said: "They are fantastic workers.

"My worry is that if this is not resolved, they are going to have to look for work elsewhere, which will leave me high and dry."

Durham County councillor Joe Armstrong said its officers were examining possible alternatives.

A spokesman for Go North East said: "We decided to terminate the daytime service at Langley Park because the passenger numbers were very low."

The evening and Sunday services had continued because they were subsidised by the county council.