ST PETER'S Parish Council is to lobby bus chiefs to create a new route so teenagers from the estate cut down the amount of time they spend travelling to and from school.

The council is concerned that pupils are spending up to two hours a day travelling to St John's and Brickfields and back.

Pupils attending Christopher Whitehead School in neighbouring St John's are forced to travel into the city centre bus station to change services and travel back out.

This effectively doubles their journey, when they could travel just a few miles round the A440 bypass.

Clerk Bob Jenkins said the outward journey took an estimated one hour five minutes and the return one hour 15 minutes.

Mr Jenkins said the latest figures showed 29 teenagers crossing the city daily to attend Christopher Whitehead, while six went to Elgar High School in Blackpole.

"Both these schools are pretty difficult to get to and it all adds up to a long day for these kids," he added.

One way of curing the problem would be to make the city centre - Lower Wick route circular so it could incorporate St Peter's and take children to St John's.

Council members also urged First Midland Red to consider setting up a new route from St John's to Warndon Villages via County Hall and the new district general hospital in Newtown Road.

"I don't understand why we don't have a route from St Peter's to Warndon Villages," said chairman Peter Hatcher.

"I think our job is to persuade First Midland Red to undertake passenger information studies to see if they would use this new route."

The council resolved to write to First Midland Red and invite its planning manager Mike Walton to the next meeting on Monday, November 27.

Spokesman Austin Birks said there were no plans to create a new bus route from St Peter's, but the firm would be happy to listen to proposals.