RESIDENTS have launched a campaign for the reinstatement of a bus service, claiming they’ve been left stranded.

Hedingham Omnibuses recently chopped its number three route, which connected Longridge and Parsons Heath to Colchester town centre, the Hythe and Greenstead.

The service was not making any money and no rival bus companies stepped in to run it.

Vanessa Schults, 52, who has lived in Longridge for 22 years, has launched a petition to get a bus service reinstated through the estate.

She plans to hand it in to county chiefs and politicians.

Mrs Schults said: “We have not got one bus service that runs through Longridge.”

Residents are also angry that a significant number of buses run through neighbouring Greenstead.

Ann Bassingthwaighte, of Chaffinch Gardens, Longridge, said: “I got on the bus the day before they stopped it and I counted 26 other passengers on board. It was the 10.05 service on a Tuesday.

“Another lady counted 23 people on the Monday on the 9.05.

“Greenstead gets a bus every ten minutes. They get the 1A, 1, 64 64A and 75. Greenstead runs parallel with our road so why can’t a bus drive down here? At least every hour.

“We are all elderly people who cannot walk like we used to.

When you go to get your shopping, you have got to walk up Bromley Road hill to Colchester Academy and walk all the way down.”

Longridge residents say the nearest alternative bus route is the 105 service from Walton to Colchester, which runs through Parsons Heath.

Parsons Heath was added into the route after the number three service was scrapped.

Geoff Ingham, of Woodpecker Close, Longridge, said: “All they have got to do is re-think the timetables and divert buses.

“They diverted the Walton bus through Parsons Heath.“ Patricia Turner, of Longridge, added: “We have always had a bus service here from when the estate was built in 1982 and it was used well.

“Just up the road there are seven buses going through Greenstead.”

The number three bus service through Longridge was scrapped in 2005 but reinstated by Hedingham Omnibus following residents’ campaigning.

Hedingham Omnibus did not want to comment on the issue.