A Te Puke mother has accused Bay Buses of cutting the township 'off the face of the earth” after her 12-year-old daughter was left standing at a bus stop for an hour-and-a-half.

Te Puke Backpackers manager Tracey Wallace-Hutchins says the regional council has cut back bus services between Papamoa and Te Puke.

On Tuesday, Tracey's daughter stood at the Palm Beach Plaza bus stop for 90 minutes waiting to go to Te Puke after visiting her father who works at the shopping centre.

And Tracey believes this is because bus routes have been cut between the two, with the Bay Bus, Twin City Express and the Eastern Link Bus schedules no longer stopping at the popular Palm Beach Plaza.

But Bay of Plenty Regional Council transport policy manager Garry Maloney says contrary to this belief, the services have not changed in four years, while the Twin city express does not stop at Palm Beach Plaza.

'The Te Puke Shopper is a new service that runs on Wednesday and Friday and stops at Palm Beach Plaza, so services have actually increased,” says Garry.

He says the Bayhopper Eastern Bay Whakatane – Tauranga stops at Palm Beach Plaza in the morning and again in the afternoon on the trip to Whakatane.

Yet the Bayhopper bus routes 30, 33 and 36 all go from Tauranga City to either Mount Maunganui, Bayfair, and Papamoa, but not Te Puke according to the transport agency's website.

A regional council spokesperson could not comment on why none of the information produced to SunLive linked Papamoa and Te Puke nor on the statement of bus services 'increasing”.

Tracey says the backpackers, catering for up to 80 at one time, is always trying to help promote the area, but only having the Te Puke Shopper and the Bayhopper Eastern Bay Whakatane – Tauranga is dumbfounding.

Many of the backpackers wanting to use a shopping centre must now go to Bayfair.

'It's like we have dropped off the face of the earth. Papamoa is a mini city now in terms of population,” she says

'I just don't understand it. I thought they would increase it and add another stop in Papamoa East. It's only five minutes as it's just off Domain Road.”

Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Lyall Thurston said in August that the new Te Puke Shopper Bus follows community consultation to consider making changes to the routes.

She says: 'We hope it will provide some extra ways in which people are able to get around the town, or to get out to either Papamoa or Bayfair or further for the day.”

Palm Beach Plaza shopping centre manager David Hill says the shopping centre's redevelopment and upcoming completion of the Tauranga Eastern Link may offer up opportunities to sit down with the regional council and discuss future transport options.

'Having said that there are other buses that come here and to Papamoa,” says David.

'When they start reviewing the implications of the eastern link and wider implications there is going to be a lot of changes and I guess you cannot make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.”

'So some of the old routes will change and there will be some new routes developed.”