Outraged Queensbury residents are claiming their privacy has been shattered by a new bus stop about which they knew nothing until it was installed.

Highfield Terrace householders, whose front windows face out on to the new shelter in West End, claim they received no notification from Metro, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, about the bus stop being moved.

The bus stop has been moved due to the introduction of a puffin crossing at Ford Hill, Queensbury.

And Councillor Michael Walls (Con, Queensbury), who has been in contact with Metro on behalf of the residents, said: "I asked them if they had consulted any local people before relocating it and was told: 'if we consulted people we would never get anything done'."

Mother-of-two Janet Fearnley, whose front room faces directly out to where passengers now queue, has a new-born daughter Jade.

She said: "It's very inconvenient because it's right outside my window and people stand there and look in and put their litter in my garden. My privacy has completely gone.

"We had no warning at all about this, and this stop wasn't there when we bought the house 17 years ago, so we should have been consulted."

Mrs Fearnley says she now has to breast-feed Jade in the kitchen because of the unwelcome attention outside her house, which has a very short front garden.

Her neighbour, funeral director Sylvia Tomlinson, only found out about the bus stop when she looked out to see why a crowd of people were standing outside her house.

She said: "I see a lot of customers at home and now people are having to push through a bus queue to come and see me about a funeral.

"We've no privacy at all, some people in the queue are leaning on my wall and looking straight through my windows so we don't use our front room now -- we might as well invite them in for a cup of tea.

"I wouldn't mind if we'd been notified, then we could have put an objection in, but we weren't contacted at all."

Mrs Tomlinson also claims she needs to park her car in front of her house, where the shelter now is, in the winter when she is on call as she cannot risk leaving it behind the house in case it gets snowed in.

Metro was unavailable for comment but Coun Walls has suggested that the stop could be relocated on the Halifax side of its previous site without causing any problems.

A spokesman for Metro said: "We have received a letter about the bus stop on Highfield Terrace and we will investigate the request to move the stop as a matter of priority.