TWO community groups have added their voices to a campaign urging transport chiefs to save a North Oxford bus service.

Alive and Kicking in Jericho, which represents people aged 50 and above, and the Jericho Community Association have called on Oxfordshire County Council to protect the Number 17 bus from cuts to subsidies.

The route is operated by Stagecoach Oxfordshire and passes through Wolvercote, Cutteslowe, Summertown and Jericho, into the city centre.

But it is now under threat as the county council reviews all of the subsidies it pays bus companies in a bid to save £2.3m between 2014 and 2018.

The saving is part of £6.3m of transport cuts as the authority makes wider spending reductions of £280m across the board because of reductions to its Government funding.

But it has provoked alarm among people who use the Number 17 bus route – which receives about £106,000 in subsidies – and sparked an e-petition to protect it.

Alive and Kicking member Anne Mobbs, 78, who has lived in Jericho for nearly 40 years, said: “It means that the older people in Jericho would not be able to get into the city any longer. Most Alive and Kicking members are aged between 70 and 99 and have got walking sticks or use walkers, so there is no way they could walk into town.

“The bus also goes to Summertown and Cutteslowe.

“People often go to Summertown and get the bus to the John Radcliffe. The children also take the bus to St Philip and St James CofE Primary School. So all that will be gone.

“Of particular concern is the members of the group as they cannot walk far. It would be disastrous if it stopped.”

Alive and Kicking members also wrote to county council leader Ian Hudspeth telling him they would “horrified” if it was withdrawn.

They wrote: “Without this route, we would be virtually cut off from the city centre and other areas.

“It is well known that older members of the community are becoming increasingly isolated and regular transport systems are vital to the good health and quality of life of the older citizens of Oxford.

“We strongly support the petition to save this vital service and call upon Oxfordshire County to scrap these cuts to vital transport services for the older people in Oxford.”

This week Jericho Community Association secretary Jenny Mann also warned the bus was the only direct public transport link for families to the Wren Road children’s centre, in Cutteslowe.

County council leader Mr Hudspeth, who is on leave, was unavailable for comment.

The e-petition now has more than 100 signatures.

To sign visit laylamoran.com/no_17_bus_service