SCORES of bus services are being cancelled around Clacks each day as transport bosses struggle with driver shortages.

First Bus has apologised for the lack of services with numerous cancellations of over the past few weeks.

The company has been keeping passengers informed on its social media pages with many of the 51 and 52 services affected.

Yesterday (Thursday, March 10) alone, the two routes were hampered by nearly a dozen cancellations.

Speaking before the pre-election period began this Monday, Cllr Les Sharp has written to First Bus with concerns.

He told the Advertiser: “My concern is that with the apparently increasing regularity of failures on this service, residents along the Hillfoots are being really affected in a negative way in their commutes.

“The commute to work is a real issue as many rely on public transport to get to and from their work both within our local area and also to areas where bus or train connectivity become a real concern.

“There is also the social aspect where residents, especially older residents rely, not only on these services to access GP or hospital appointments but for day-to-day shopping and leisure.

“At a time we are actively promoting public transport we should be able to rely on these services provided – I do appreciate the effect the pandemic has on staffing, but when a scheduled service simply doesn’t arrive, it leaves many with few options.

“Communication is at the heart of all we do and this is an issue where communication appears to be lacking.”

He added that a good public transport system will be one way to address net zero emissions ambitions and “importantly with the current level of fuel increase we are experiencing it may be the preferred and affordable mode of transport”.

The bus firm explained it is looking to address ongoing staffing challenges.

A spokesman for First Bus told the Advertiser: “Whilst we continue to do all that we can to operate as many journeys as possible with the resource that we currently have available, we still have some way to go to overcome the driver shortage we are experiencing like other road transport businesses.

“We have an aggressive recruitment campaign in place to attract new drivers to the business as we continue our efforts to cover the current driver shortage.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused."

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