A BUS company has apologised after villagers were left without access to public transport for almost a whole day.

Residents in Great Yeldham, Sible Hedingham and Castle Hedingham have access to one service during the day, the 89 from Hedingham and Chambers buses.

The bus takes passengers between Great Yeldham and Braintree.

But on Saturday, September 9, services were not running for most of the day.

Frustrated resident Andrew Digby, 33, from Great Yeldham, uses the bus six days a week from Monday to Saturday. 

He said: “Six hours’ worth of buses were cancelled on the Saturday. They did not run after 9.30am until 3.30pm, which left three villages without access to public transport.

“These three villages have access to one bus route during the day and that is the 89.

“So, people either had to fork out for a taxi which can cost up to £30 one way depending on where they want to go.

“I can understand the company might be short of drivers, but something must seriously be wrong for them to cancel six hours of buses, stranding loads of people if they can't afford to get taxis and buses are only other means of transport."

He added: “It is a regular occurrence. 

“Two weeks ago, multiple routes were cancelled and again today (September 13) buses have been cancelled, including the 5.47 which is one main one people use to get home from work, meaning they must wait an hour for the last bus from Braintree to Yeldham.”

A spokesman for Go East Anglia, which operates Hedingham and Chambers buses, apologised for the inconvenience.

They said: “Unfortunately, we experienced a high level of driver sickness on the day in question and we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“It is always our intention to run all advertised trips but last-minute changes to driver availability and vehicle breakdowns can affect this.

“We would ask that our passengers use our app to ensure they have the latest information.”