AXED bus services are to be restored in a Teesside town, thanks to a £500,000 rescue package, it was disclosed last night.

Stockton Borough Council has stepped in to reinstate evening and Sunday bus services taken off the road by the Stagecoach bus company, earlier this year.

A 505/506 Boroughbus service, paid for by the council, starts operating as early as tomorrow.

The hourly service is on a circular route, serving Surbiton Road, Bishopton Road, Oxbridge Lane and Stockton High Street.

It will restore buses lost when Stagecoach reorganised its services in April and October.

Councillor Bob Cook, Stockton council's cabinet member for environment, said: "We are doing all we can within the present legal framework, and as far as budgets allow, to ensure that our residents live reasonably near to a bus service.

"We will spend well over half a million pounds on supporting buses this year, so our residents have the services they rely on.

"This is in addition to spending more than £1m on concessionary fares for disabled and over-60 passengers, Pathfinder half-price travel for young people; fitting every bus with closed-circuit television cameras by next April, low floor stops and investment in other measures to support and improve bus services.

"In future, we mean to radically improve the quality of bus services by implementing the Tees Valley Bus Network Review, so that more people will use buses. This in turn will reduce the need to provide subsidised services, cut congestion and improve the environment for everyone."