ALMOST 90 bus routes in Oxfordshire are under threat of being axed because of budget cuts.

Next Tuesday transport bosses will decide whether to end all bus subsidies in the county and save £3.7m, or keep about a third and save £2.3m.

The subsidies are paid by Oxfordshire County Council to bus companies and community groups so they can run 118 bus routes, mainly in rural areas, that would otherwise not be commercially viable.

The routes under threat.xlsx

The local authority is also set to scrap the £260,000 a year spent on dial-a-ride – a door-to-door service for people with mobility problems – which it said could be taken on by community groups.

But it comes after a consultation revealed there was “a deep level of concern” about the proposals, which sparked more than 2,650 comments, 236 emails and letters and seven petitions.

County council transport boss David Nimmo Smith said it was “another example of the council being faced with difficult choices”, as it grapples with an expected £50m of fresh cuts.

The authority has already had to plan about £290m of cuts since 2010 because of reductions to its funding by the Government.

Mr Nimmo Smith said: “I did not stand for election to do things like this and people have been telling me exactly what they think about these proposals.

“They value these services and want them to be retained at all costs.

“But it is not that simple and we would not be having this discussion if they were commercially viable.

“In the past the county council has stepped up to help, but we simply cannot afford to keep doing that now.”

The county council said 88 of the 118 subsidised bus routes were ‘fully subsidised’, with the rest being partly subsidised to run detours, extra services at off-peak hours, or stop at less well-used bus stops.

Under proposals to scrap all of the subsidies and save £3.7m, fully subsidised routes could be closed and others reduced.

But the local authority said 33 fully-subsidised routes could be kept open under its alternative £2.3m proposal, with cash for a further six partly-subsidised routes also saved.

Two versions of this proposal were put forward, with one prioritising off-peak services and another prioritising peak services, after feedback from the public consultation held over the summer.

If the changes are made, the subsidies would be phased out between April and June next year.

The cuts to funding for dial-a-ride would take effect from the spring, but Mr Nimmo Smith said he hoped that other arrangements could be made for community groups to offer the service in their areas by then.

This has already happened in Oxford, where social enterprise Aspire has been running dial-a-ride since April.

Bosses in County Hall are said to be impressed by the job it has done so far and the group could bid to run the service elsewhere in the county.

Northway great-grandmother Joyce McHale, a regular user of the service, said it had been “even better” since Aspire took over.

The Plowman Tower resident, 95, added: “It’s a very good service and I use it twice a week.

“It takes me to my lunch club on Wednesday at the Salvation Army and to a church in Old Marston on Thursdays.

“I’ve been very pleased with it and the gentlemen who run it are very nice.”

The council’s cabinet will meet to discuss the proposals at 2pm on Tuesday at County Hall, Oxford.