SCHOOL bus stops may be changed after dozens of confused adults were left waiting for regular buses that never came.

Southend Council is considering changing three former seafront service bus stops in Shoebury Common Road, now only used for Stevenson’s schools service, as people have been waiting at them for regular buses.

Peter Grubb, 65, owner of nearby Uncle Tom’s Cabin, said: “I have been personally involved in dozens of incidents where I have made it my business to help unfortunate folk stood at the bus stop waiting for a bus to come.

“During the summer months not a day goes by when people are not standing there.”

Mr Grubb, who has ran the seafront kiosk for more than 30 years, found an elderly man who had been waiting at one of the stops for 40 minutes on Saturday, December 1. The man thought he must have just missed a bus.

The business owner said: “It was an elderly man in an isolated spot. If he continued to wait there it could have caused him all sorts of stress.”

Mr Grubb, who has been raising concerns over the stops for about three years, said someone put up a sign warning the stops were only for school buses this summer, but it was removed.

He has suggested putting a notice stating: “schools service only” on a vacant space where the numbers of buses using the stops would be.

Open top buses ran from Shoebury to Leigh during the summer using the stops until about a decade ago. Mr Grubb would prefer the service to return, but if not he wants to prevent people waiting in vain for it.

Councillor Tony Cox, cabinet member for transport on Southend Council, has asked officers to look into changing the signs to show that they are only for schools services.

He said: “I have asked our officers to look into seeing if we can have a sign to indicate it is a school service.”