A YORK mother says children are being left stranded at bus stops because of a shortage of bus drivers.

Maria Audet, from Vine Street, says her daughter has been late on six occasions since starting at All Saints' School in Mill Mount Lane because of late buses.

On one occasion, when the bus did turn up, it was forced to drive past as it was already full of school children.

She believes the problem in not just confined to children at All Saints' School, but is a problem for all children using the number one bus.

Mrs Audet says it is too far for her daughter to walk to school with heavy bags and she is not proficient enough to cycle.

She says her daughter is so desperate to get to school on time she recently accepted a lift from someone without her mother knowing.

Luckily the lift was from another parent who was well known to Mrs Audet and her daughter, but the incident caused concern.

She said: "She accepted a lift from someone that I know and she knows, but she is being put in a position where she is so desperate to get to school on time she is accepting lifts."

She believes the problem will get worse in the next few months when winter arrives and children are then waiting in darkness and bad weather.

Peter Edwards, the commercial manager at York bus company, First, said the situation was a temporary problem which would be sorted out within the next few weeks.

He said: "With the schools going back we have introduced a new time table. We have been affected by a driver shortage which we are overcoming at the moment.

"We have difficulty running every single bus because of a driver shortage and we are aware there are some gaps, however, this puts additional pressures on the buses that are running.

"We have been speaking to the city council and are looking to get it sorted out. We would expect the situation to improve significantly in the next week as we are getting additional drivers."

David Pearson, principal transport manager at City of York Council, said: "We are aware of the complaints about the unreliability of the bus service and are pursuing First rigorously to resolve the problem."

Dr Adrian Elliot, head teacher at All Saints' School, said: "We are aware of the concerns and have contacted the education department at the City of York Council."

Updated: 08:28 Thursday, September 26, 2002