Derbyshire: Bus users say services 'not good enough'

Bus users shared their frustrations at a meeting in Belper

Frustrated Derbyshire residents have criticised unreliable buses and told the firm running them to do better.

Many from Belper and surrounding villages said buses often did not turn up.

A meeting heard some people were having to pay £50 for a round trip to the Royal Derby Hospital because the bus was so unreliable.

Bus firm Trentbarton said it was making a series of improvements including hiring more staff.

About 70 people turned out for a meeting in Belper with councillors and representatives from the bus company.

Siobhan Fennell, a wheelchair user, told the meeting she was recently left stranded in Belper and said the service was "not good enough".

Some passengers using buses in the Amber Valley region have said they are not reliable

Belper Town Council mayor Jamie Walls said people were fearful services were being cut back.

"There's a knock-on effect with reliability and it breeds fear because people rely on the bus services," he told the BBC.

"Every time a bus doesn't turn up, there's rumours that [routes] are being lost.

"They need to get more information out there - the bus signs people have said are not giving real-time information."

Mayor Jamie Walls paid tribute to bus drivers in the area and said they were "some of the friendliest in the country"

John Bickerton, engineering director for Trentbarton, said new engineers joining the firm would help reliability issues by getting buses back on the road quicker.

But he added they were still struggling to recruit engineers, even with a 25% pay rise.

"We are seeing improvements with reliability and that's coming back due to customer growth," he said.

"We've got areas where we are still struggling to recruit bus engineers and we've done some work with Alstom managing people as they come out of their redundancies."

John Bickerton, from Trentbarton, said the firm was working to address reliability issues