BUSES designed to reach the parts other services don't will soon be zipping around Southampton, after being given a green light £100,000 cash boost.

The Bridge Link service will fill the gaps between regular services around Millbrook, Redbridge and Shirley Warren.

Peak services will run between major employers such as the Nursling industrial estate and the docks, while off-peak routes are designed to carry shoppers and those trying to reach health facilities like the General Hospital.

In November last year the government stumped up £755,000 for the so-called Urban Bus Challenge in Southampton.

Now the final cash injection from the Outer Shirley Regeneration board, announced this week, has tipped the finances and given the go-ahead to the project.

Marcus Wrycraft, behind the project, said the brand new £75,000 buses, which carry 14 people and one wheelchair, were small enough to squeeze round tight corners on the routes through Southampton estates.

Three buses would run at peak times, he said, with two off-peak. Fares would be standardised to save confusion between different prices for different times of day.

And a special "hail and ride" system of stopping the buses would operate in zones off the normal route, to avoid elderly people having to struggle to the nearest bus stop.

The new service has been welcomed by one of the top employers in the area.

A spokesman at Ordnance Survey, in Romsey Road, said over a third of its 1,300 employees live within four miles of the site.

Lance Vinter, vice chairman of the Southampton council tenants and residents federation, also welcomed the new buses.

"It's great that these communities are starting to link together," he said.

"Any service that runs right through these estates to get people to shops and jobs is good for the people who live there."