BETTER roads, clearer information for bus users and more co-ordination between the council and bus companies.

Those are the key demands from Southampton residents following a meeting between residents' groups and transport bosses in the city.

Bosses from Solent Blue Line, First Hampshire and Unilink, as well as council transport planners, were grilled by members of the Southampton Federation of Residents' Associations at the meeting, staged at the Civic Centre.

Residents also demanded to know why the city was one of the few in the country not to have a central bus station and if planners were prepared for the expected surge in demand for buses that would come following the development of the city's prestigious West Quay Phase Three.

The ambitious plans include an ice rink, three blocks of flats and a central plaza, which are due to be built in the city centre by 2007.

But Simon Bell the principal transport planner at Southampton City Council told residents that although city planning bosses would be making room for buses at the prestigious development, it was up to the bus companies themselves if they wanted to run services into the new city centre facilities.

He said: "The City Council will try to obtain bus funding improvements as we did at West Quay. We will only ensure there are facilities for buses to get to the site. The city council will look at that as part of the application."

He also responded to criticism that there were not enough bus services running into West Quay shopping centre. He said: "The council has always wanted more buses to service West Quay. As we move towards the west, there will be equal demand and one would hope that some bus services will transpire in that direction."

During the meeting, it was revealed that there were 20.7 million passenger journeys made on buses in Southampton every year - more than 90 journeys per head of Southampton's population.

A new timetabling, system dubbed "Stopwatch" is also due to be put in place in the city which would give passengers clear information when buses were due.

The council plans to introduce the so called "electronic timetable" this year. Mr Bell said: "The council has put a lot of investment into it. But we have to make sure the system is accurate."

Bus companies also came under fire from John Waugh who set up the Southampton University's "Unilink" system. He said: "We spent a lot of time finding out what the problems were. I do feel as an industry, bus companies have lost sight of the customer."

Mike Smith from First Hampshire and Dorset told members of the federation that bus companies needed to make profits so they could invest in better services.

He added that the company had made improvements to its buses that made them more accessible to the disabled.