SOMERSET Council has apologised to a group of children who were left stranded five miles away from their school due to 'teething issues' with a new bus timetable.

On the first day of South West Coaches' new bus timetable on Monday, April 15, children were forced to catch two buses for their journeys to and from school.

However, on their journey home, their connecting bus did not arrive, leaving the children stranded in Castle Cary.

Some of the children stranded were from Sexey's in Bruton, who were left around five miles away from their school.

A mum of one of the children had to phone South West Coaches to send another bus to pick them up.

The same incident then re-occurred on the following day.

"I think this whole new bus timetable, cutting the 1A, 1B and 1C has been an absolute shambles on Somerset Council and South West Coaches," the mum said.

"It’s absolutely not acceptable for children to be stranded and unable to get to school on time.

"My daughter has been at least 15 minutes late everyday this week."

In a statement sent to the County Gazette on Thursday, April 25, South West Coaches said the incident was caused by 'teething issues' with the newly implemented timetable.

A spokesperson said: "Unfortunately there have been some teething issues with the new timetable, but most have now been resolved.

"A minibus was sent to rescue the students that had missed their connection, reference them being late for their out of catchment school.

"The timetable will have to be changed to suit the school timings  - this will happen sooner rather than later."

Somerset Council stated the issues with the timetable had since been addressed in its statement sent on Monday, April 29.

The council apologised for the incident, and affirmed that the problem affecting the connection between the two buses in Castle Cary had since been resolved.

A spokesperson said: "We are sorry about the inconvenience and worry this caused pupils.

"There were some issues we needed to work through with South West Coaches which have now been addressed.

"The connection between the two bus services at Castle Cary is now working as it was intended."