A bus company has been given three months to find a new depot in Worthing and let its neighbours get some sleep.

Residents of Park Road have been woken by vehicles passing their homes from 6.15am.

Compass Travel's 19 minibuses and four coaches have been operating from the town centre site but borough planners decided they could not wait any longer for the company to find another base and have given it three months' notice to leave.

The depot, near a block of flats called Kings Hall, included vehicle storage space and a maintenance workshop.

Town development control manager James Appleton told a planning meeting the noise was "unacceptable", sometimes exceeding 80 decibels, equivalent to the sound from a building site.

He said: "Park Road residents have short front gardens, compounding the problem of buses going quite close to their houses.

"We had 80 letters of objection from Kings Hall flats in relation to noise.

"The applicants have been looking for some time for a place to base Compass Travel."

No alternative sites for the depot have been found and plans to relocate the entrance from Park Road to Lyndhurst Road proved to be riddled with problems.

Planning committee vice chairman Councillor James Doyle said: "Bus movements on a road like Park Road are unbearable for residents, as we've seen in East Worthing where a lot of development is piled on top of each other.

"Lyndhurst Road is narrow and congested and moving the entrance would be giving other residents the problem."

Councillor Brian Lynn said: "An average of 16 vehicles leave the site quite early. If it was not for that, Compass Travel would have my sympathy.

"Having said that, they are providing important bus services and are on contract with West Sussex County Council to take school children to school. We have to do all we can to assist them."

Park Road resident Steve Limbrey said after the meeting,: "We want Compass Travel out as soon as possible. Until then, we have to continue to put up with the noise and pollution.

"We do not want to see them going bust but they are operating from where they should not be operating."

John Rickards, of Park Road, said the continual heavy traffic damaged pavements and kept people awake into the night.

He said: "It's a community service, so they are running seven days a week."

Compass Travel finance manager Roger Cotterell said planning regulations had stopped a number of applications to relocate elsewhere.

He said: "We do recognise the issues and are doing all we can to find alternative premises, we are grateful to Worthing Borough Council, MP Tim Loughton and West Sussex County Council for their support in this quest.

"We are not the sort of people who ride roughshod over others but we are in a bit of a dilemma."