A MUCH-criticised bus service is so unreliable it has even come in the way of official council business, a parish council chairman has claimed.

Bramhope Parish Council has been lobbying bus company First Leeds to make the well-used service X84 run on time.

But chairman Coun John Mordy has now demanded answers from the firm's managing director, after being left stranded while trying to get to an appointment with the parish council's solicitors. Coun Mordy had to abandon his vigil by the bus stop on Monday August 1 and drive to Leeds when the X84 - which he described as 'totally inadequate and unreliable' - failed to turn up.

The service, which runs between Leeds and Ilkley, and to Skipton once every hour, is one of the few services operating through Bramhope.

Coun Mordy said he arrived at the bus stop five minutes before the bus was due, but the express bus had still not appeared 15 minutes later.

He eventually decided to head home for the car in an effort to reach Leeds in time. Coun Mordy said: "There seems little point in trying to use this company's buses, if they cannot provide an on-time service at a quiet time on one of the quietest days of the year."

He said he did see a bus go through the village several minutes later, but assumed it was the slower service 780, which would not have got him to Leeds on time.

Coun Mordy wrote to the managing director of First Leeds, asking for an explanation, and also sent his concerns to Leeds North West MP Harold Best.

First Leeds commercial manager Richard Harris said: "We have done a recent schedule change and we're hoping that will improve some of the problems."

He said rush-hour services were scheduled to run later, and gaps left between return journeys to prevent one late service delaying the next.