THE battle to boot double-decker buses out of Dartmouth's Victoria Road may have been won.

And bus bosses have said they are also looking at implementing an early Sunday service to gets resident to church.

First Bus officials are looking at restricting the route through the town centre to single-decker buses following a new round of talks with local councillors.

They have also said they will look at bringing forward the company's winter town bus Sunday timetable to start at 10.30am – instead of the present 11.30am.

On top of that, they have also agreed to consider putting the Totnes railway station down as a drop-off point on the Dartmouth to Totnes service.

Town councillor David Gent was part of the delegation that met with First Bus officers at Plymouth last week.

With him was Dartmouth district and county councillor Jonathan Hawkins and Dartmouth and Area Public Transport Group co-ordinator Angie Cairns-Sharp. Cllr Gent said officials had agreed to put the various changes to the First Bus executives in January.

The main suggestion involved taking the double-decker services to Kingsbridge and Totnes off Victoria Road and running them up College Way instead.

Cllr Gent said: 'It will cut down on congestion in the town centre which, according to the bus drivers themselves, is getting worse.'

He said that parts of Victoria Road were narrow and buses have been driving on pavements and, in the past, there have even been complaints of buses knocking down walls.

He also said that at the moment, in the winter, the first town bus operates on a Sunday at 11.30am.

'Anyone who wants to go to church at St Clement's or the Baptist church will miss out because the bus operates half an hour after the services begin,' he said.

He said First Bus was now looking at starting the Sunday service at 10.30am and will probably look at cutting back on the last service of the day.