If passengers sit in the shelter, buses roar past without stopping because drivers cannot see them.

The bizarre situation has come about because of the design of the £35,000 bus shelter at Cowplain which is on the £31m A3 Bus Priority Corridor.

People can sit in the roofed shelter but the seats don't face the road. Drivers often can't spot passengers because bus route adverts and timetables are on the shelter's windows.

At the shelter across the road, however, the seats face outwards, giving commuters no problems.

Bewildered commuters wonder why it has become so difficult to catch a bus.

Ethel Snow, 62, of Seagrove Avenue, Hayling Island, said: 'If you don't put your arm out, you don't stand a chance.

'You sit in the shelter and if there is a queue of traffic the bus drivers can't see you.

'To me the bus shelter is the wrong way round.'

Claire Goble, 28, of Chaffinch Green, Wecock, said: 'It should be more see-through.'

Local resident Donald Spittles, 93, asked bus users why they kept congregating outside his drive and not at the shelter and was surprised when they told him that it was the only way to avoid missing their bus.

He said: 'The bus shelter is stupid.

'It is back to front, but nothing is being done.'

Bus shelter problems have also been experienced in nearby Clanfield as bus shelters are in the wrong place after the bus company changed the route.

Councillor Mel Kendal, the executive member for environment at Hampshire County Council said: 'The bus shelter has been installed correctly and has a clear panel at the side through which passengers can see buses approach. Drivers are also trained to look for people waiting at shelters.

'There are three advertising panels within this bus shelter but they have been positioned so they do not obscure the sightlines of either the passengers at the bus shelter or residents as they emerge from their drives.'

He said the shelter was designed with help from Bus Users UK, Havant Access Group and Portsmouth Association for the Care of the Blind.

Cllr Kendal added: 'Their input was invaluable and they actively helped to finalise the design resulting in several firsts in terms of bus shelter planning.'