DIAMOND Buses, the company which operates a number of services in Droitwich, has admitted that there have been problems with the town’s bus service at a meeting with Worcestershire County Council.

The company has been slated by local town councillor John Cook on a number of occasions for buses continually breaking down, as well as generally being dirty, dented, and in a poor condition.

Last week Councillor Cook, who is a regular bus user in Droitwich voiced concerns over the bus services in the town after a day in which he claimed one bus was struggling to cover five of the town’s bus routes and at the time, a spokesman for Diamond said that there had been a minor issue with one of the vehicles on Friday morning, but otherwise, services in Droitwich were operating as normal, but in a scheduled meeting on Thursday, with staff from Worcestershire County Council, the company admitted there have been problems.

A spokesperson for Worcestershire County Council said: " The county council met with Diamond Bus recently where it was acknowledged there had been problems with the Droitwich services. Having listened to the concerns raised, their operations director assured us that Diamond Bus would give the issues urgent attention to improve the reliability of these services.

"Worcestershire County Council has already undertaken some further monitoring since this meeting took place and all journeys observed were operating within expected times. We will continue to monitor these services regularly to ensure the steps taken by Diamond Bus are resulting in a positive outcome for passengers."

Worcestershire County Council controls the contract for a number of the routes in the town including the 17, 18, 19A, 19C and 20. The current contract was awarded to Diamond Bus in September 2014 following a competitive tender process, and runs for three years, dependant on acceptable standards of operation.