FRIGHTENED workers are calling for buses to serve a busy retail park to prevent them having to walk through an underpass where a teenage girl was raped.

Despite it being one of the busiest retail parks in the borough, there are currently no bus services which drop off or pick up from the Mayflower Retail Park on the A127 at Basildon. Instead, shoppers have to drive while many workers have to either use a car or walk for 20 minutes through Gardiners Link until they reach the nearest bus stop at Whitmore Way, Basildon.

But, for those who have to walk, they also have no choice but to use the underpass – which runs beneath Cranes Farm Road – where a teenage girl was raped last week.

Employees at the park are calling on First Essex Buses to include the retail park on a route.

Lisa Jones, 48 of King Edward Drive, Laindon, said: “It’s just unbelievable such a busy retail park does not have a bus service.

“Our only choice, for those who don’t drive, is to trek to Whitmore Way, which is miles away and there’s only one bus an hour there.

“I’ve never liked walking through that underpass. The other day I walked through, after the girl’s rape, and I felt so vulnerable.

“Lots of women I work with have been saying the same, and some of us have been walking together.

“I used to ride my bike to work, but there is always so much broken glass in the underpass, I was constantly getting punctures.

“No-one should have to go through what that girl has, and a bus will make it safer for workers at the retail park.”

Mrs Jones said she and colleagues were considering starting a petition for a bus route.

A spokesman for First Essex Buses said they would consider starting up a new route and urged Mrs Jones and representatives of the retail park to write to them.

He added: “We are always revising our routes and we would definitely consider any proposal.”