A mum from Deal has criticised Stagecoach after her 13-year-old daughter was left stranded when the bus to school did not turn up for a week.

Terry Crawford, 44, of Griffin Street, said her daughter Maisie, who is in Year 9 at Dover Grammar School for Girls gets the bus from Water Street every day for the last two years.

Mrs Crawford said: “The bus hasn’t turned up this week leaving several children stranded at several stops. The bus driver said it’s stopped going to certain stops, without any notification.

“Stagecoach won’t give me an answer to this, I can’t even get hold of them and I've been trying non-stop for days.

“This leaves young girls at bus stops from 7.20am worrying about getting to school. Parents are worrying themselves silly also.

"All this and already they’ve upped the fee. I find this a very bad service and putting stress on children and parents at the beginning of a day.”

The bus is the 80A bus from Deal to Dover which for the last week has been taking a diverted route due to roadworks closing King Street.

Matthew Maytum, press officer at Stagecoach said: “Firstly we’re very sorry that because of roadworks closing King Street we weren’t able to serve bus stops along the High Street and College Road in Deal on Monday and Tuesday.

“Instead buses followed a slight diversion along Beach Street and The Marina. Although we had notices on our buses and our website, we didn’t get notices up on the bus stops that we couldn’t serve. This was unfortunate and we very much regret that some customers waiting for a bus may not have known about the diversion.”

He added that as the roadworks are continuing that Stagecoach would put signs up at the bus stops that are affected during the diversions.