BUS campaigners are celebrating after forcing a bus company into a U-turn over plans to axe a popular service.

They said that people pressure caused First Bus to think again on plans to cut services to Southill Garden Drive.

Last week 200 people packed into a church hall for talks with the company and to hear future plans for the service that would merge the number five service to Southill and the number nine service to Lanehouse.

The campaigners raised a petition of 1,057 signatures in 72 hours to convince First to save the service to Radipole Village and were concerned about plans to stop the service to Southill Garden Drive.

The new timetable and route for the bus took effect on February 1 and the new number five service runs in a loop to Lanehouse, Southill, Radipole and Weymouth town centre.

At the meeting residents raised concerns about the lack of bus service to Southill Garden Drive and Mark Williams, the representative from First Bus promised to go away and talk to the company.

As a result, the service to Southill Garden Drive will be reinstated at the end of February. Until then the current timetable will run without services to Southill Garden Drive. First Bus is working on the new plans and will be issuing new timetables soon.

Yvonne Hall who organised the first meeting, said that she was delighted at the result.

She said: “I am really happy. I never thought when we had our first meeting that this is the way it would end.

“I just wanted to make people aware of what was happening and the campaign went from strength to strength and the outcome is so much more than we were expecting.

“First Bus have really listened to us and they have changed the timetable three times now. I think its time to close the campaign down now, I don’t think we can expect anymore.”

She added: “The petition organisers would like to say a big thank you to all the residents of Southill who went out with the petition, to everyone who signed it and also to county council and Mark Williams at First Bus for listening to us.”

Dorset County Councillor David Harris said that campaign went to show what people could achieve.

He said: “It’s a fantastic result. It goes to show that if people come out and say what they think they came have a big effect. I’m delighted for everyone.”