COUNCIL chiefs have pledged to work more closely with bus operators to help improve services in the town following criticism by the North West Traffic Comm-issioner.

At a hearing which stripped Accrington Buses and two members of the Pilkington family - which runs the company - of their operating licence, Hyndburn Council revealed it employed two inspectors on the town's bus station.

Their job is to monitor the running of services from the bus station, and they now operate a database which reveals which operators and services are regularly running early, late - or not at all.

A dossier was presented by David Law, Hyndburn's transport manager, to Beverley Bell about poor timekeeping by Accrington Buses before last Friday's hearing.

When challenged about the dossier at the hearing, Ray Pilkington, founder of Accrington Buses, claimed he did not know many of the services listed hadn't run to time because no-one had told him.

He said: "We never hear from the inspectors. We know they are around because they make life a nightmare for all the operators but we're not told when these services don't run."

Mrs Bell said: "It seems it would be in the best interests of everybody that, from now on, the details being collated by the council are distributed to the bus companies so everyone can work together for the good of the passenger.

"It doesn't seem sensible to have this information but not make best use of it."

Mr Law said today: "We have take on board what was said at the hearing.

"We did make information available if there was a trend or pattern emerging.

"But we will be in regular contact with operators from now on if services aren't running as they should be."

He added the introduction of a new database at the council would make it easier to disseminate figures.

Bus operators face being fined if they don't keep to their timetable.