ANGRY passengers staged an impromptu protest in a York city centre street when they realised their bus was not going to stop for them.

According to eyewitnesses, passengers stood in Piccadilly blocking its path in a vain bid to persuade the driver to let them on board one of Arriva's York-Selby buses.

During a stand-off, the driver is said to have warned the passengers he could not stop and they were putting themselves at risk, and eventually drove off.

It emerged later that passengers had queued there because they failed to realise their bus stop had been temporarily moved 200 yards down the street while workmen carried out improvements to the kerbs.

A council sign informing them of the change had been positioned where it could not be read: inside a bus shelter which was cordoned off while work went on. Passengers are thought to have believed the bus would park at the bus stop alongside.

Anne Steele, 74, of the Fulford Road area, was at the bus stop yesterday and witnessed the stand-off.

She said she had seen the yellow notice giving directions to the alternative stop, and had told two or three confused passengers of the temporary arrangements.

But she said some passengers were still waiting at the cordoned-off stop expecting the bus to pick them up there, and about six had gone into the street in an attempt to get it to stop.

She said: "They were standing in the street and the driver just went by."

But she added: "He (the driver) could not have stopped anyway. There were two other buses there, he was jammed in the middle."

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said today that the authority apologised if arrangements had caused any confusion or inconvenience to passengers.

"Work to raise and improve the kerb at the bus stops in Piccadilly started at the beginning of last week and, when completed, should make bus travel more accessible to everyone," she said.

"Each stop has been done in turn with signs placed in each shelter when work started to explain the temporary stopping arrangements.

"The work is now virtually complete and bus services will revert to their normal stops very shortly."

Updated: 10:29 Friday, March 12, 2004