A BUS route serving the heart of Southend is set to be axed.

From Monday, Stephensons bus company will cease the current No 24 bus route, which takes passengers from North Avenue, Central Avenue and Sutton Road to Southend city centre.

The No 24a service, which runs along Hamstel Road, Lifstan Way and Woodgrange Drive, will be renumbered as the 24, but at this stage no announcement has been named about adding additional stops.

Trevor Harp, a resident and former councillor, said: “I’m due to get a bus pass at the beginning of March, and I’ve just found out the number 24 service in Southend which feeds North and Central Avenues and Sutton Road is being revised - with 11 days’ notice.

“The bus service is being withdrawn from those three roads.

“Instead of having a bus that runs along there every 20 minutes or so, residents now face walking up to a half an hour to their nearest bus stops.

“Some of the older people are now potentially looking at having to get taxis. They haven’t given any reason for it, just announced in their website.”

Mr Harp added: “The impact of losing the 24 route is going to be significant and detrimental to the number of people that use the route for school and work journeys; it always seems to be reasonably busy in the mornings.

Martin Berry, councillor for St Luke’s ward, said he was concerned for the elderly residents relying on the route.

He said: “It is going to have an enormous impact. I use buses myself. I’m one of the few councillors who actually use them. The problem is as a local council we have not control over the bus services.

“Unless they are brought back into public ownership this is always going to be the problem.

“Cutting this route will have an enormous impact on a massive number of people in the central and southern parts of the ward I represent. It seems bizarre to me. Yes they need to make a profit - but not on every single route. They saying it’s costing too much, £150,000 a year, but I find it hard to believe it’s costing too much.”

Stephensons, who announced the cut on their website, have been contacted to comment.