BUS bosses have reversed their controversial move to scrap wheelchair-friendly buses to Blackburn hospital.

There was an outcry in the summer when Lancashire United revealed double decker school buses, which cannot be lowered for wheelchairs and prams, would be used on routes to the Haslingden Road hospital.

But now the company has said it will use low-floor buses on 80 per cent of the trips, with a view to covering all of the routes in the future.

Marketing director Nigel Eggleton said: “We realised the decision to take low floor buses off the route in September was going to be unpopular but unfortunately it was a decision we had to take to safeguard the viability of the network. At the time we promised that we would be working hard to reintroduce low floor buses just as soon as possible. That’s what we’ve done and now we’ve been able to reallocate buses within the group.”

Mr Eggleton said the “vast majority” of services on the Spot On 2, 2A and 12 routes, which go to the hospital, would be low-floor from Monday. Each one will be shown on a timetable on the firm’s website.

He added: “We’ve listened carefully to feedback from passenger and we’ve been able to fine tune the changes we made in September to make the network even more reliable.”

In recent months there have been a series of cutbacks to the bus network in Blackburn and Darwen, sparking a war of words between the council and Lancashire United over who was responsible.

The company claims it is not being compensated for free travel for over 60s, while council bosses hit back, accusing it of putting profit before services.