AN OTLEY grandmother is warning that people will abandon public transport unless local services are improved.

Lesley Woledge was set to catch the X84 bus from Otley to Leeds on the evening of Tuesday, December 20 with her daughter and grandchildren.

The group were planning to enjoy a pre-Christmas show at West Yorkshire Playhouse but ended up having to get a lift from a friend after the 5.55pm service failed to show.

Mrs Woledge, of Riverside Park, challenged the driver of a bus that did pull into the station with a 'not in service' sign displayed - and was told it had to return to the depot 'due to time pressures'.

She has now written a formal letter of complaint to First Leeds.

It says: "It appears that if a scheduled bus service is running late it is just cancelled willy-nilly, thus adding a more grievous fault to the initial one.

"Surely, with good organisation, First should be able to adapt its schedules so the predictable late rush hour does not cause the timetable to be scrapped, even putting on extra buses at Christmas time?

"The station director told us the next bus to Leeds would be an hour later. Waiting a further hour, on a cold evening, would have made us miss the first part of the show we had arranged - and paid for - to see.

"Luckily we had a very kind friend who ran us into Leeds by car, and came back later to take us home, to enable us to have a pleasant evening.

"However if a bus service is running late, this should be no reason to cancel it.

"If people cannot rely on a service they will not use it, and if they therefore have to rely on private transport there will be increased congestion."

Speaking to the Wharfedale & Aireborough Observer, she added: "People who rely on public transport are the young and elderly or poor, who have no access to a car. However we should all be using bus services if they were reliable."

Business Manager at First Leeds, Will Pearson, said: "We’re sincerely sorry and disappointed to hear Mrs Woledge and her family were unable to travel on the X84 service, but we’d like to reassure her this is not the experience we wanted her to receive and hope she will return to use the service again.

"In light of her letter we’ve launched an investigation to understand why the service was unavailable on the evening of December 20, and are in direct contact with her to provide a full update.

"We know how frustrating and inconvenient it is for customers that have had similar experiences, but would like to reassure them we do all we can to get you to your chosen destination on time.

"We closely monitor and review service performance, and where possible will introduce timetable improvements."

He added that details about planned disruptions and service updates were posted on the company's website and through its @FirstWestYorks Twitter feed.