Bus operator says 69 stops affected by roadworks

A bus company says it has been experiencing a "challenging month" because nearly 70 of the bus stops it uses have been affected by roadworks.

Sanders Coaches, which is based in Holt and operates in north Norfolk and Norwich, said there had been an "unusually high" amount of work taking place within a short space of time.

The company's Kieran Smith said: "Since the start of October, we've had probably the most roadworks we have had in a six-week window at any one point."

Norfolk County Council said that while not all roadworks were under its control, it was conscious of scheduling work around the busy summer tourist season and the Christmas period.

Speaking to Chris Goreham on BBC Radio Norfolk, Smith said: "We now cover a network that really spans a bigger area of Norfolk than we have ever run, so we are statistically at a point where we are seeing more roadworks that affect our services.

"There has been a real bubble of them all at once and that has been quite a struggle."

Kylie Eames, who runs KSM Driving Tuition, said journey times travelling between pupils had increased, and lesson times had been taken up by sitting in queues.

"The experience of being in queues and temporary traffic lights is useful, but if a large part of the lesson is spent barely moving there is not a lot of opportunity to practice," she said.

"Our pupils are having to meet up in the city so they are not wasting time travelling from their home to the city on their lesson just sitting in traffic."

Tom Dickerson, the Reform UK cabinet member for highways and transport at Norfolk County Council, said only about 25% of the work was within the council's control.

He said the authority had tried to schedule work to cause as "little interference as possible" around the summer and Christmas periods.

"When you've got work going on at Thickthorn and things like that on the A47, everyone is being impacted...

"We try to do the works to cause the least amount of trouble, the least amount of aggravation, [and hope that] in the long-term it will be better for everyone."

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