TWO of East Hampshire's rural bus services are to be axed as part of cost-cutting measures agreed by Hampshire County Council's environment policy review committee last week. Top of the list are the Stagecoach 205, linking East Tisted to Alton on Monday to Friday, and Stagecoach 201/211, the Odiham to Alton school holiday service. They were just two of eight rural services to go, bringing about savings of around £200,000. The cuts come as the result of a value for money assessment regarding bus subsidies - used to check that the spread of funds best matches the aims of the Local Transport Plan. While the 201/211 Odiham bus showed a subsidy level of £4.41 per passenger, the 205 East Tisted service revealed a figure of £7.23 per passenger , well above the maximum £2.50 level, set last year. According to an HCC spokesman: "Withdrawing this particular service would save the county council £23,610 at a time when the bus subsidy budget is very tight because of a number of pressures, including increased tender prices from bus operators reflecting increased fuel and wage costs." But the decision to axe the bus will have infuriated residents living in the tiny villages of East Tisted and Farringdon, some of whom rely on the 205 to do their shopping. Speaking prior to Thursday's meeting, a Tisted resident pointed out that those who used the bus were mainly elderly and, while appreciating the need for cuts, she suggested reverting to a two-day service on a Tuesday (market day) and Friday. Farringdon clerk Michael Findlay said the proposal to axe the bus was "very disappointing". "We have no village store, no school, no health centre and an inadequate bus service. While this service may not have been hugely profitable I think it is a service that should be subsidised if necessary." In a statement this week it was explained that in making the decision on which buses to subsidise, Hampshire county councillors had to not only take into account the cost to the public purse, but also to give some weight to who would be affected and whether other services would be available to meet their essential needs for education and training, work, health treatment and food shopping. Last Thursday, executive member for environment Tim Knight approved a small number of bus subsidy withdrawals, amounting to around £200,000. This will help bring back into balance the £5.4 million budget for supporting public transport, and help to halt escalating pressures, ensuring the county council can continue to support the services that people are using. Mr Knight explained: "No-one likes to see services withdrawn, but the reason the county council subsidised these in the first place was because operators weren't making enough money on them. Not enough people were using them so there were too few passengers to make the services worth running. "Our figures show that all eight services are above our £2.50 per passenger journey threshold, with the most expensive (East Tisted) being almost three times that limit at £7.23 per journey. This is not an efficient use of taxpayers' money. "With the bus subsidy budget remaining under real pressure, largely due to circumstances beyond our control such as loss of government grant and increased tender prices, withdrawing these few services is the sensible option as it enables others to continue running. "The best way to safeguard services though, is to encourage more people use them, and the county council is working in partnership with operators to make travelling by bus a more attractive option - with some notable successes. A number of services in Havant, Farnborough and Basingstoke are now used by over 30 per cent more people than they were just a few years ago, thanks to improvements in the quality of the services." Notification was sent to all county councillors, district and parish councils inviting comments on the service changes which are likely to take effect as of Monday, July 31. Changes to some of the Cango demand- responsive bus services were also approved. The Alton Cango, covering parts of East Hampshire, Basingstoke and Hart, will have two vehicles rather than three from August and will not give a direct link to North Hampshire Hospital. The cuts are expected to reduce passenger subsidy figures thereby improving the longer term prospects of this service. Consultation on all the Cango changes is taking place with local county councillors, district and parish councils, and with passenger forums where they exist. Excluding rural bus grant from government - £1.464m - the bus subsidies budget for 2006/07 is £5.44 million, which is currently sufficient to fully cover estimated expenditure on existing bus service contractual commitments, but leaves virtually no scope to cope with any additional costs from contract re-tendering, or other service pressures during the year. A further £566,000 is spent on supporting community transport each year.
