People power has forced a council to rethink proposals for concrete bus platforms in the heart of suburbia.

Brighton and Hove City Council has been forced to justify plans to put 48m of concrete bus buildouts on a leafy residential street after residents described them as ill thought out.

They fear tree-lined Beaconsfield Villas - in the Preston Park Conservation Area - will be unnecessarily urbanised in a scheme that will scar the street's appearance and create parking chaos.

Residents say their road needs a different approach to major transport routes, such as Marine Parade and New Church Road, which are also in line for platforms.

Earlier this week the council unveiled proposals to introduce two 11m, two 8m and two 5m buildouts - plus six full-sized bus shelters - on the Fiveways road.

The council will not put a figure on the final cost of the scheme but residents believe it could be close to £50,000.

After the council admitted it had not carried out a survey of the number of passengers using each stop, residents put forward their own figures, revealing just three people boarded a bus from one stop on a recent weekend.

Residents called on the council to try a pilot scheme with shorter buildouts, which could save up to £20,000 on the road.

So determined are residents to make their point they have:

Carried out their own surveys into the number of passengers using stops on their road
Interviewed bus drivers to get their views
Contacted the researchers on whose work the council has based its scheme
Contacted the city council and main bus operator of Bournemouth and discovered the city's 2.5m-long buildouts are proving a success
Drawn up and costed alternative proposals.

Council officers have now agreed to amend their scheme and present it to residents within six weeks.

Resident Maurice Gale, 41, the man behind the alternative proposals, said: "We have serious concerns that council officers seem to want to hurry through an expensive and inappropriate scheme in a quiet conservation area road."

The council said the residents' alternative proposals were "unworkable" on one of the busiest bus routes in the city. They said "enormous" research and experience told them 5m was the minimum space to allow buses to pull in safely.

They said the shelters cost the council nothing and, as the highways authority, the council did not have to consult the public but had written to residents and held two public exhibitions anyway.