Transport bosses were grilled at a council meeting over the borough’s worst-performing bus that is “not fit for purpose”.

A review into how many B14 buses there are is being launched after figures showed it is constantly leaving Sidcup residents waiting.

The B14 runs from Bexleyheath Clock Tower to Orpington every half hour, but according to councillors it is causing commuters travel nightmares.

New data shows that the bus is consistently setting off late, and some residents are being forced to wait for up to an hour for one to come along.

Sidcup councillor June Slaughter raised the issue with Transport for London’s Gary Nolan at a transport committee meeting on October 24.

“The performance of the B14 bus is as bad as ever. Nobody seems to be able to get to grips with the issue”, cllr Slaughter said.

“The percentage of buses departing on time has fallen away, what is the problem with this route? It causes great inconvenience to people in my ward and beyond.”

The B14 only departs on time 69 per cent of the time – the worst rate in Bexley.

Commuters using the service can be waiting for up to 15 minutes 20 per cent of the time, much longer than other buses.

New Sidcup councillor Richard Diment said it is causing problems for elderly people in a part of the ward, the Royal Park area, where it is the only public transport available.

Cllr Diment said: “I have been trying to actually get a response from TfL about the performance figures which are by far the worst for a low frequency bus in Bexley.

“It runs every half hour and then it gets delayed by 15, 20 minutes, you can wait nearly an hour between buses.

“Stagecoach, which operates the service, said they do not believe it is possible to achieve the frequency required with the number of vehicles TfL were prepared to authorise. They said TfL would review that, but the service is going from bad to worse.

“We need to put on record it needs to be looked at, there is no alternative public transport in that part of the ward and the service is causing a lot of problems for people going to work, schools, doctors. It is not fit for purpose.”

Mr Nolan said TfL was reviewing the situation.

He said said: “This is something we are aware of. You are right about Stagecoach’s opinion. But there is an issue with cost- we are operating without a government grant so we don’t have a lot of spare cash to play with these things.

“We made the decision to proceed with this number of vehicles but we are reviewing this with the operator.

“We are working out if there are any other measures we can put in place to improve frequency. We are trying to do the best we can to get the reliability up.”