LOCAL councillors are furious this week after a political row was sparked by Hampshire Country Council's decision to slash local bus services.

Despite the budget for bus subsidies not being reduced, less popular services were axed last Tuesday, which will leave more than 110,000 passengers stranded next year.

Hampshire Country Council describe the budget as "under pressure" due to rising fuel and wage costs.

Whitehill town councillor, Adam Carew, told The Herald 18 services will disappear completely, while eight others will see reductions in frequency and two more have received temporary reprieves.

Twenty-six bus services across Hampshire stand to be affected in some way. 

Mr Carew said: "These cuts are just plain nasty. The county council's report says that the services to be lost carry more than 110,000 passengers per year who have no alternative services. 

"This is the biggest programme of Hampshire bus service cuts in living memory and the Liberal Democrats are wholly opposed to them.

"This Beeching-style axing of local bus services is unwelcome, if not down right stupid. It comes at a time when our roads are getting more congested and our atmosphere more polluted.   

"To cut congestion and help the environment we are supposed to be encouraging a modal shift from cars to public transport. These bus cuts are going in exactly the wrong direction.

"Buses are a lifeline to thousands of people across Hampshire who rely on these services to do essential things like shopping for food, getting to work or visiting the doctor. 

"Once again, Conservative policies will hit the elderly, the young and the disadvantaged the hardest. 

"At the county council's budget meeting in February, the Conservative leader Ken Thornber said that this year's budget involved no cuts to services.

"Yet these budget pressures were known then and services are now being cut, and on a scale not seen before. 

Liberal Democrat opposition leader at HCC, Adrian Collett, said: "The press release from Tim Knight is bizarre. 

"He says these changes 'safeguard the most widely used services', but these services were only ever under threat from Hampshire Conservatives in the first place. 

"No-one else is suggesting these bus cuts are necessary.

"The leader of the council Ken Thornber said in February that his 2005/06 budget for the county council included 'no cuts in services'. This is a clear case of promises made before the election being broken within just a few months afterwards."

The executive member for environment (south), Tim Knight, said: "The decision I've taken will enable the county council to target its money to those services that are used by the highest number of passengers.

"It's important that we set this decision in the wider context. The county council is always looking for more efficient and effective ways of spending public money and providing services.

"It's not good value to continue subsidising a single bus service that's used by only a few passengers to the tune of £10 per person, to give just one example."

"Fuel prices, insurance and drivers' wages, are being passed on to the county council in the form of increased tender prices.

"In addition, several bus services have subsequently become uneconomical for the operators to run and this has put escalating pressures on the bus subsidy budget and forced the county council to reassess where the money is being spent."

Mr Knight added: "Bus services which are coming up for renewal during the current financial year are showing an inflation increase of eight per cent because of the rise in fuel and wage costs, and because of this, operators are telling us that some services have become uneconomical.

"This has meant that the budget is under pressure. The measures I have taken will simply balance the books."

To find out which buses are proposed to be cut log on to: http://www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions-docs/">www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions-docs/ 050726-exmshr-R0726104915.html

To find out which services have been kept, log on to: http://www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions">www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions- docs/050913-exmshr-R0908102256.html