POLITICAL candidates fighting to increase a bus service delivered a petition with more than 3,000 signatures to Transport for London.

Paul Donovan, Jo Blackman and Daniel Morgan-Thomas gathered 3,054 signatures for their petition calling for the number of W12 buses to rise from two per hour to three.

TfL slashed the W12 service in December 2017 by a third, justifying the cut on the grounds of customer need.

Mr Donovan said that the number of signatures gained over a short space of time shows how strongly users want the service to increase.

He said: “The number of signatures gathered in such a short period of time show the strength of feeling in the local community about this bus service.

“It is important to so many people but particularly significant for those travelling to and from Whipps Cross Hospital. We hope that TfL will take the message from the local community on board and restore the service to three times an hour."

The W12 is the only bus service that goes from Wanstead and South Woodford to Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone. It also serves Walthamstow Village.

Critics of the service cut condemned TfL for not consulting users before the decision was taken.

The three Labour candidates, who will stand in the Wanstead Village ward for the local elections in May, presented the petition to Tom Copley, London Assembly member on Thursday, February 8.