A new bus route which included Gapton Hall Retail Park and Harfrey's Industrial Estate has been scrapped - less than three months after it was introduced.

From April 18, the 61 service from Great Yarmouth to Kessingland - which is run by Anglian Bus - has been following a new path, which has seen it stopping outside the busy industrial estate.

However, it has now been decided that from July 8, the bus will go straight from Tescos to Gorleston High Street, omitting Gapton Hall and Harfrey's.

A statement on the Anglian Bus website stated that the changes had been made to improve the punctuality of the service.

It said: 'Buses will arrive in Great Yarmouth slightly earlier but will continue to depart at the same time for journeys to Kessingland.

'This change will assist the punctuality of the service. We do apologise for any inconvenience called.'

The revised service was introduced in April after longstanding calls from campaigners to introduce a regular service to Gapton Hall.

The decision to scrap the reroute after just three months has been strongly criticised by Steve Hewitt of the East Norfolk Transport Users Association (ENTUA), who had led campaigns for a Gapton Hall service.

He said: 'I am simply flabbergasted. The service only started in April, something us in EntUA have campaigned for since Gapton Hall started to expand in the last few years.

'The traffic around Gapton can be quite heavy at all times of the day, but Anglian Bus were well acquanited with this situation before they started to operate the route in April.

'Yet again, passengers are left in the lurch. I know, personally, of one person who got a job on the strength of the fact that he could get to and from work on Gapton Hall by bus and is left wondering what he is now going to do following this decision.'

Mr Hewitt added that he felt the service had simply not been given long enough to become established and that three months was not long enough for the company to adequetely assess its merits.

It comes after the network manager of another bus firm - First Buses - told councillors a regular bus serivce to Gapton Hall was 'unrealistic'.

Full details of the service's new timetable can be found on the Anglian Bus website.