ARRIVA, the main bus company in High Wycombe, has admitted it is letting its customers down because of a shortage of drivers and buses which cannot cope with the town's hills.

Arriva bosses have apologised to passengers for late and cancelled buses in the town and gave a public promise to turn things round in the next two to three months.

Heath Williams, operations director for Arriva the Shires and Essex, talked of a record of failure in the past 12 months since the company bought Wycombe Bus Company.

He admitted: "Our services are falling below par."

He added that the company had "failed abysmally in too many areas."

The confession of failure and the promise to get things back on track came from Mr Williams and Paul Morgan, Arriva general manager, when they met Buckinghamshire County Council's environmental scrutiny committee last Wednesday.

They say the reasons things are falling apart is a dire shortage of drivers about one in seven jobs are vacant as well as ageing buses which cannot cope with the traffic congestion and hills, and a lack of space in the depot to carry out repairs.

Drivers are being brought in from Watford, Aylesbury and Luton to fill gaps and this week Mr Williams visited Harlow to try and persuade drivers there to come to High Wycombe. They will be put up in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Arriva is currently short of 24 drivers from a complement of 160.

Serviceable and newer buses are being brought in from elsewhere which Mr Williams said should be more suited to the Wycombe terrain and more comfortable for passengers.

Meanwhile, Wycombe buses are being taken to Aylesbury and Luton for MOT testing and PSV licensing to relieve the pressure at the town depot.

The county council puts about £1 million into subsidising bus services each year.

It also has a legal agreement with the Government that bus services will be punctual. A lot of money is tied to that agreement, which Arriva must deliver.

The Wycombe service was described as abysmal by Peter Cartwright, Wycombe district councillor for Keep Hill and Hicks Farm, who has had numerous complaints from passengers.

Cllr Cartwright said vehicles were defective and unserviceable. "It's a fairly old fleet with some buses about 15 years old."

People were having to wait 45 minutes for buses that should come every ten or 15 minutes. The two main routes affected were the 326 from Micklefield to Booker and Cressex, a 15-minute service, and the 303 from Totteridge to Castlefield, a ten-minute service.

This was supposed to be a special service with easy access buses for old people and people with small children, but it seemed to have stopped, he said.

Mr Morgan said the buses had had engineering problems, because they were difficult to maintain and were underpowered for the terrain.

Mr Williams said restoring the easy access buses would be a top priority.

He also promised more management time devoted to High Wycombe, a big effort to train new drivers and a bus fleet in a condition to deliver.

"I have confidence we can do this in two or three months," he said, adding that at the company's other eight centres where there had also been problems, a turn-round had happened.

Finding drivers when there are plenty of other jobs to be had elsewhere is a big problem in High Wycombe. Advertising campaigns and job fairs have not been successful.

In Luton, where Arriva has a new depot with good facilities, a gym and a social club, there is just one vacancy where there had been 30. Luton is the most lucrative operation in the company and runs without subsidy on 90 per cent of its routes.

Mr Williams said: "If we had Luton facilities in Wycombe we could improve our staff retention. We can't continue failing the way we are. We can move forward."