Hawick and Hermitage Councillor Davie Paterson has taken the company to task over its reliability after complaints about late buses and even no-shows in the West End and Stonefield.

And in some cases he revealed pensioners had missed doctor's appointments because of the problems.

"I have written to First Bus on numerous occasions," he said. "There are a lot of customers complaining about buses not turning up and it's not good enough.

"The buses are either not turning up or they're turning up late and it's an absolute shambles.

"From what my constituents are saying it's happening on a regular basis and it can't continue. People have had doctor's appointments cancelled and other inconveniences."

Mr Paterson said he had received several complaints over the last two weeks alone, although First Bus said they had no record of any correspondence.

However, Paul Thomas, the firm's regional managing director, urged anyone unhappy with the current service to contact them.

And he said the company would be arranging a meeting with Mr Paterson to discuss the problems as soon as possible.

"We have four key commercial services operating in the Hawick area – the number 11, 12, 13 and X95," he said.

"And as a customer-focused company we are willing to listen to any suggestions to improve services and look forward to meeting with Councillor Paterson in the near future to discuss issues he may have that we have not responded to.

"If customers have concerns over the bus services in the Hawick area and have experienced problems, we would like them to contact us direct."

Customers can contact First Bus via telephone on 08708 727271 or by emailing contact.scotlandeast@firstgroup.