More bus lanes and a clampdown on selfish motorists are needed to get services running on time.

The boss of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company is asking the city council to set up bus lanes in key areas to stop his vehicles becoming helplessly held up.

He also wants police to properly enforce traffic restrictions to stop drivers causing jams with irresponsible parking.

Mr French, managing director of the company, gave his views at the National Federation of Bus Users' annual conference on reliability in Birmingham at the weekend.

He set the scene before passengers met with bus operators, council officers and traffic commissioners to discuss the issue.

Mr French said Brighton and Hove had a good record of partnership with the council, which had helped put in measures to improve reliability.

They included some city centre bus priority measures and the forthcoming system which will track buses via satellite.

And he said he was looking forward to mid-July when the city council will take over parking enforcement from the police.

But he added: "We will be asking the police to go in for greater enforcement of traffic regulations so we can keep the buses moving."

Mr French said Brighton and Hove had moved some buses away from the main railway station because of problems over illegally parked vehicles.

He added the council's new station traffic management scheme had benefited pedestrians but no one else.

Mr French said traffic commissioners had targets for only five per cent of journeys to be more than five minutes late but that was not possible in Brighton and Hove at present.

He wants Brighton and Hove City Council to put in a bus lane on the A259 coast road westwards towards the Rottingdean traffic lights and further bus lanes in Lewes Road heading south towards the Vogue gyratory.

Mr French also called for more organisation and control of roadworks, which can cause huge delays to services, often unexpectedly.