Pensioners hit the road and brought buses to a halt in protest at the axing of most of the routes in Crawley.

Members of the Crawley Pensioners' Action Group stood in front of Arriva buses, preventing them from leaving the town's bus depot.

They carried placards and stood across the road for an hour, delaying each bus for several minutes.

One driver, who did not want to be named said: "It doesn't bother me being held up. The drivers don't know what is going on."

The pensioners marched through the town to the bus depot, collecting signatures for a petition protesting about the loss of the services, before staging their demonstration.

Arriva Southern Counties, which operates 85 per cent of services in the town, is pulling out at the end of March. The company claims the services are no longer viable.

Protester Lilla Fox, 87, of Spencers Road, West Green, said: "Without buses I won't be able to get very far. We want public ownership. We used to be able to rely on the buses."

Pensioner Dorothy Isherwood, of Furnace Farm Road, Furnace Green, spread-eagled herself across the front of one bus to stop it.

She said: "I used to ride a motorbike until I got cancer. Now I can't walk too far and need the buses."

Driver and union official Roy Millard, whose bus was also stopped by the pensioners, said the demise of the main bus service in Crawley was "deplorable".

He said drivers had been expecting this to happen for the last six to eight months.

Mr Millard said the 120 drivers, engineers and office staff did not know what was going to happen to them and would be meeting union officials tonight.

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said it was looking for a replacement bus operator.

Lead community services councillor David Dewdney said: "It may be difficult to achieve a replacement bus network that meets everyone's expectations but we are doing our best to make sure that all essential travel needs are met.

"I am confident our hard work will result in the high quality local bus network that people in Crawley need and deserve to have."

Arriva managing director Bob Scowen said: "Any transport service provider needs to ensure they are operating a sustainable network, one which will allow for future growth and development.

"Unfortunately the routes we operate in Crawley are not allowing us to do that. We cannot make a commercial return and we simply cannot continue to operate on that basis."