BUS lanes in Newport will only operate during peak hours, after the council bowed to public pressure.

A special group of councillors tasked with brainstorming the bus lane issue said they should only operate between 7am and 10am and 3.30pm and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday.

The move comes after years of unrest among city motorists who accused the green lanes of wasting space and aggravating traffic woes.

Now the councillors' recommendations, which also include reviewing the whole design of the Malpas Road bus lane, will be put to roads boss Councillor Ron Jones, cabinet member for transport.

They include plans for a new bus interchange on Queensway to replace the current bus station on Kingsway, which is due to be demolished as part of proposals to regenerate John Frost Square.

If the recommendations are accepted, the new peak-hour system will be implemented at a cost of £14,700 and monitored for 18 months.

At a meeting of the transport scrutiny forum yesterday councillors heard the lanes had been found to improve reliability and journey times.

Brian Kemp, head of engineering at the council, said: "Traffic patterns have improved so much since the opening of the SDR that drivers don't need the extra space of the bus lanes.

"The lanes are of far more value to buses than they are a loss to the driver."

But he conceded the perception of most drivers, "fuelled by bad press reports", was that the bus lanes should be removed or have reduced hours.

Councillors voted to restrict the operating hours of the lanes and to investigate ways of generally encouraging car sharing.

Inspector Simon Jeffries of Gwent Police said police would work to enforce the new bus lane hours, though they would not "allocate significant resources" to the issue.

The controversial bus lanes were first introduced in 2001 as part of the city's transport policy to boost regeneration and have spread throughout the city at a cost of £1.35m.

But last July, Councillor Jones ordered a radical rethink of the lanes. At the time he told the Argus the lanes "wasted" space and needed a fresh approach.