ALL SUBSIDISED bus routes in the county could lose the extra money they receive from Oxfordshire County Council.

Last month the Oxford Mail revealed the county council planned to review more than 100 subsidies in order to save £2.3m as part of £6.3m of transport savings between 2014 and 2018.

But councillors have now decided to consult the public on plans to scrap all the subsidies, which cost the council £3.68m a year. Last night bus companies confirmed they were closely monitoring the proposals and stressed some services were only partly subsidised and may not be cut altogether.

Council officers had originally said they would try to ensure off-peak subsidised routes were protected, as these routes are used by older and disabled people.

But at the cabinet meeting last Tuesday county council leader Ian Hudspeth asked if it was possible for more savings to be made by cutting all bus subsidies and senior councillors agreed to include the option in an upcoming consultation.

David Nimmo Smith, cabinet member for environment, also suggested approaching the district and city councils to ask them to support bus routes.

Mr Hudspeth said he made the suggestion to cut all subsidies because more Government cuts were likely to hit the county council’s budget in the coming years.

He said: “At the moment people think their services going to be cut anyway and if you look at our report it does say we will have to make further savings.

“It is better to have that as part of the consultation, because people may say we should do it now rather than taking two bites of the cherry.”

Diane Haley from Wadard’s Meadow in Witney uses the Stagecoach 213 service which is one those threatened by the cuts to subsidies.

The route was previously withdrawn in June 2014 and then reinstated in November.

The 67-year-old said: “It is very sad they want to withdraw the subsidies, not just for me but for my friends who are elderly.

“But I know you cannot run these services on a shoestring.

“I think we need to attract more people to use the buses.”

The consultation was originally intended to allow people to have their say on which services should lose their funding but people will now be asked what they think of scrapping subsidies altogether.

Appleton resident Betty Griffiths uses the Thames Travel 63 service, which is one of those under threat.

The 74-year-old said: “If they were to cut the subsidies, we’ll all just be completely cut off.”

Bus Users Oxford chairman Hugh Jaeger said he believed the county council was trying to lessen the impact of withdrawing subsidies.

He said: “I suspect that the county council intends just to cut some, not all, of the bus routes.

“But it is putting this option in the consultation to make people think things could be much worse.”

General manager of bus operator Thames Travel, Stefan Soanes, said the firm was looking at “a number of options to keep services running”.

He added: “At this stage it’s too early to say which services would be affected by a reduction in council support.

“Thames Travel has a strong track record of making routes commercial wherever we can. But it’s not always possible to run services in the most rural areas without some kind of financial support.”

Stagecoach Oxfordshire business development manager Karen Coventry said: “The subsidy review will affect a small number of journeys operated by Stagecoach within Oxford City, with the only services 17 and 20 being included.

“All of our Gold services within Oxfordshire will be completely unaffected, but some rural routes in West Oxfordshire and a number of journeys or routes operating within Banbury will be under review.

“Over the past few years we have evaluated our network and made decisions to operate journeys without funding, where possible.”