Students, parents and pensioners raised a wide variety of issues with Mr Harris who agreed to investigate a number of the suggestions raised by constituents.

Martin Harris will look at whether siblings could receive a discount on their fares to school to reduce costs for families with more than one child taking the bus on the school run. He also agreed to look at the timings of buses serving Varndean and Dorothy Stringer schools as students complained that they arrived too early for school.

Patcham residents raised the importance of more services into the city centre, as well as more electronic bus signs to let passengers know when buses are due. Caroline agreed to take this up with the council who provide electronic signage at bus stops.

Students at the University of Sussex were particularly concerned about rising costs of bus fares.  They recently polled students on their views on the city's bus services and agreed to forward their results to the bus company to help improve services.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion said: “I would like to thank everyone who attended the meeting and hope that it will lead to further improvements to the city’s bus services.

“As a regular bus user, I understand the issues that people raised and it was really useful to hear from them as well as from Martin Harris who as Managing Director of the Brighton Bus and Coach Company is in a position to take their suggestions forward".  

This week is national Catch the Bus Week and, to mark it, the local MP has held a mobile advice surgery on the Number 50.  She said:

"It was a great opportunity to talk with many constituents about their concerns.  I hold regular weekly surgeries, but the mobile bus surgery was a brilliant way to reach people who might not have time to attend a regular surgery, and I look forward to doing it again."

Caroline Lucas has also written to the Transport Minister to make the case for an urgent review of bus policy, including whether the interests of passengers and communities could be better served by promoting the regulation and public ownership of bus services.

Notes for editors

For further information, please contact Mike Eames on 07590 050 565