A SHORTAGE of bus drivers has prompted a Chester company to look to Eastern Europe.

ChesterBus has taken on eight Polish drivers after recruitment difficulties caused disruption to services.

Commuters last month complained about the reliability of the number 25 service between Chester city centre and Huntington.

They said the 5.10pm bus failed to show several times.

Great Boughton parish councillor, Barbara Thomas, of Belgrave Road, said: 'I've been left waiting frequently, maybe once or twice a week.

'We have been told they simply haven't had enough drivers.

'If they want to encourage people to use public transport they should make sure there are enough drivers.'

But ChesterBus manager, Stuart Hyslop, said action had been taken.

Mr Hyslop said he had been forced to use a specialist agency in Manchester for the first time in recruiting eight Polish drivers.

He said the Poles already had relevant driving licences and the company was helping them to arrange English lessons thanks to an EU grant.

'We are in a slightly better position now than we were in maybe May or June,' said Mr Hyslop.

'The problem is that there are just no drivers around here, we've been advertising and advertising.

'Unemployment figures in Chester are very low, it's something which affects all companies.

'Virtually every shop is advertising for staff.'

Unemployment in Chester was up from 1.3% to 1.4% for June with 1,018 people claiming job seekers benefits.

Mr Hyslop added that proposed timetable alterations in September, based on requests by the public, would also help improve service reliability.

'I can't go into detail at this stage because we're still working on the plans, but it is about timetable changes,' said Mr Hyslop.

'There will be the same number of buses and an extra service from Guilden Sutton to Chester at 9pm.'

Other Chester bus companies, First and Arriva, said they had not experienced similar problems with a shortage of drives.

But First said it had more than 400 drivers from Eastern Europe working in other parts of the UK.