A TEN-year-old schoolgirl was left stranded in the cold and dark after successive buses drove past her stop.

Emma Coombs, of Cooks Close, Bemerton Heath, left Avon Middle School as usual on Friday at 3.15pm and walked to her bus stop on Tournament Road.

But she was left waiting for more than an hour after several Wilts & Dorset buses inexplicably ignored her stop.

By 4.30pm, she had given up on any bus arriving and decided to walk to the shop over the road and telephone her mother, Michelle Roddie, who was becoming frantic with worry.

Miss Roddie said: "I had made several phone calls to find out where she was but no one had seen her.

"I was just about to call the police when the phone rang. Emma said she had been at the bus stop for one hour but that every bus going past did not stop.

The incident coincides with a string of letters to the Journal this week about other Wilts & Dorset services running late or not at all.

They include complaints about buses to the Victoria Park area of the city and also between Downton and Salisbury.

Wilts & Dorset operations manager Paul Hartigan said he was not aware of any particular problem with the buses last week.

"We are investigating a complaint regarding Tournament Road and will deal with any other complaints in the usual way," he said.