A pregnant woman was left stranded at a bus stop for more than two hours after three buses failed to turn up.

Jill Whittington, 27, of Graham Avenue, Mile Oak, is expecting her first baby on October 24 and said her journey to and from work is becoming so stressful she may have to take maternity leave early.

She travels to and from American Express, in Edward Street, Brighton, on the No 1 bus. She said they are always late or do not turn up.

She said: "I finish work at 7.30pm and last week the bus still hadn't turned up at 9.30pm. I had to get another bus and then a taxi home.

"I got very upset and I was crying, although one bus driver did stop and get out to make sure I was okay. The buses are just as bad in the morning. I keep arriving late for work. I might have to go on maternity leave two months early because I can't get to and from work and it is too stressful."

Although Ms Whittington was given a one-day travel pass as compensation by bus operator Brighton and Hove Buses, she said it is not good enough.

She said: "This problem is happening all over the town. All the politicians keep telling people to use public transport rather than cars but it just isn't reliable and half the time when it does arrive you can't sit down."

Meanwhile, a gardener claimed he was being driven out of business by buses turning up late or not at all.

In the past three years, Stephen Grimes, 47, of Kingsway, Hove, said he has lost more than a third of his customers because he cannot get to jobs on time.

He has given up trying to get to Seaford and let go of eight customers there because the service from his home, also run by Brighton and Hove Buses, was unreliable.

He said: "I rely on the buses every day for my business but the service has just been getting worse and worse.

"I am late so often now that my customers think I am sloppy and I have started to lose work. It is costing me a fortune."

The bus journey from the stop Mr Grimes uses on New Church Road, Hove, to the homes of two of his customers in Kemp Town, should take about 25 minutes.

But to make sure he gets there on time, the gardener, who pays more than £100 for a quarterly ticket, gives himself an hour-and-a-half for the journey - and is still often late.

Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Buses, said Miss Whittington should not have had to wait so long for a bus and blamed problems on a lack of drivers.

He said: "I apologise for what happened.

"We have introduced new timetables and schedules on several routes this week because we have a shortage of drivers which is affecting the service.

"The schedules have been changed so fewer buses are needed to maintain the timetable.

"This will hopefully make it more reliable but we do still have problems, particularly on the No 1 route."

Mr French said staff were trying to iron out the problems this week.

Other factors like slow-moving traffic in Brighton town centre, also made it difficult to run bus schedules on time.