ANGRY bus users say they are being forced to shop in the morning after their bus into town was axed.

Shoppers and elderly residents in and around Chesham say they have been left in the dark after bus company Arriva scrapped the 336 service from Chartridge to Chesham more than two weeks ago.

Barbara Hunter, 64, lives in Chartridge Lane, Chartridge, about two miles out of Chesham which is the nearest shopping centre. She says she has to shop in the morning as there are no services in the afternoon.

She said: "There used to be hourly services but they've been completely scrapped. The bus service from Chesham has been decimated. I am angry about the lack of consultation.

"I bought a bus pass shortly before the cuts were made but no-one mentioned anything about the withdrawal of this service.

"I thought the idea was that more money was to be put into improving bus services."

The 336 service ended at the same time as Arriva scrapped a range of routes around Buckinghamshire.

The company, the county's largest bus operator, cut routes that were unreliable and unprofitable. At the time it blamed a chronic shortage of drivers and congestion.

A pensioner, who has been using buses in Chesham for more than 25 years, said: "It's terrible - we haven't got a bus in the afternoon. We have been treated pretty awfully because we don't know what is going on. If somebody would explain it and talk with us it would be different wouldn't it. Everyone's annoyed about it. It's ridiculous."

Buckinghamshire county councillor Pamela Crawford (Lib Dem, Chesham West) said she would continue to raise the issue at County Hall.

She added: "I'm appalled that this service has been cut so severely. You can't get to the town and back in the afternoon.

"For the elderly, and we have a large number of elderly people in Chartridge and Chesham, it makes life very, very difficult."

She said: "These people are virtually marooned in their homes and we should be doing more to help them."

David Shadbolt, marketing manager for Arriva, said the subsidised contract with Buckinghamshire County Council to run the service from Chartridge had ended.

He said the new service, which did not include Chartridge, was a commercially run route which received no subsidy.

He said service changes had been announced on new timetables.

"We've introduced a revised 336 service that we can provide commercially. It is a much speeded up journey for the vast majority of passengers on the route."