Hundreds of elderly, young and disabled people were literally stranded in their homes this week following the collapse of the bus company which provides services in Monmouthshire.

Services from Monmouth to Newport, from Monmouth to Abergavenny, as well as local services to ad from Wyesham, Osbaston and Rockfield were lost.

A spokesman for the Monmouthshire County Council said on Tuesday: "We are working hard behind the scenes to arrange for the bus services to run as soon as possible.  Operators have submitted their tenders and we expect the services to resume by Monday 23rd November or earlier."

In a statement issued late on Tuesday, the County Council said:

"We have awarded new contracts for the public service routes that were disrupted due to Drake Travel ceasing trading.

"The following services will be operated from Wednesday, Wednesday November 18th:

Service 63 Chepstow to Cwmbran; Services W3,4,5 Monmouth Town Services.

Both of these will be operated by Chepstow Classic Buses.

The remaining services will be operated from Thursday November 19th or if confirmation has been obtained from the Traffic Commissioner, in the morning by Wednesday lunchtime.

83 Abergavenny to Monmouth; 43 Abergavenny Town Service; both these will be operated by Veolia Transport Cymru; 60 Monmouth to Newport; this service will be operated by Terry Ward.