Disabled pensioners claim they have been left "high and dry" as their lifeline bus service gets the chop.

Elderly people living at the Bryn complex, in Basildon, fear they will lose their freedom when the Thamesway service is dropped next month.

About 120 pensioners, many of whom are disabled or blind, live on the estate and rely heavily on the once daily return bus service to the town centre.

Thamesway, which runs the service under contract to Essex County Council, says the bus currently carried just six people a day to the centre.

That, the firm says does not make for a viable service.

Kenneth Fuller, 79, and wife Rene, 79, of Moatfield, Basildon, need the bus to get into town to pay their rent and get their shopping.

Mr Fuller, who is blind, said: "We have been left high and dry and have no means of getting to town unless we want to walk a mile to the nearest bus stop.

"Few of us own cars and nobody can afford the cab fare.

"We have no idea why this service is being dropped. There was just a notice put up in the bus on Friday saying it will finish on July 31.

"Those of us who cannot walk or are blind cannot get to the town to pay our rent without that bus.

"I feel like telling Basildon Council it will have to come to me for its rent in future.

"We cannot even get to the doctors or hospital without the service."

A Thamesway spokesman said: "The number of passengers using the bus has proved below the passenger criteria level. The bus has never been full.

"It is an awkward estate to serve, as it is tucked away. The only way these residents will get to the town now is to walk to Whitmore Way to catch the bus which runs past every five minutes. It is a bit of a walk, but that is the only way."

A county spokesman said: "This went to committee in February and we reported the relatively low passenger usage.

"The fact there are commercial services running from the nearby Whitmore Way also went into the decision making.

"This is not ideal, but we have to be realistic about the services we run."

Mr Fuller added: "It is a crying shame that this bus is stopping. I am disabled enough to know it is going to be a headache to get down the road."

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