SCHOOL pupils are running late for class after a change in bus timetables and routes.

Pupils at Southend High School for Girls and Futures College, both in Southchurch Boulevard, Southend, are affected by revisions to First and Arriva services.

Children are now having to get up extra early to ensure they have time to change buses after the number 27 First bus service stopped travelling along Southchurch Road and instead terminates at Southend bus station.

The problem is especially affecting youngsters from Leigh.

It is exacerbated by the new number 28 service, running right past the schools, only being operated on an “occasional basis”.

They can usually only catch it on their return journey.

Audrey Snee, from Leigh, whose daughter is in Year 7 and gets the bus at the Elms, said: “The 27 used to go to the White Horse pub and it was a short walk from there.

“But now they are relying on the Number 1 Arriva bus, which is notoriously unreliable.

“If they miss that, they have to get on the 27 and then change at the bus station. This makes them late. The buses are also full as fewer are going out towards Shoebury.”

She added the changes confused many of the younger students and should have been publicised via a letter from the bus company to the schools. She said families are demanding a better service.

Alison Clewlow, headteacher of Southend High for Girls, agreed.

She said: “A small number of girls are fairly regularly late because of the bus. They get in at 8.45am, instead of 8.30am.

Sometimes they can’t get on the bus because it’s full.”

A spokesman for First said: “The section of the route that has been removed is now served by our new 23 service that runs every ten minutes Monday to Friday, from Southend bus station and back again.

“Customers were informed of the changes through on-bus notices and a digital campaign through our website and Twitter account.”

Arriva regional publicity manager Richard Lewis added: “We have carried out timing checks on services since the changes were implemented and these show that reliability on Service 1 has greatly improved.”