TWELVE rural bus services across the county have been given funding to keep in operation until April 2022.

Oxfordshire County Council will use £275,000 of its existing Local Authority Bus Subsidy Grant from the Government to provide short-term interim support to bus services that would otherwise have to stop next month.

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Three routes are being saved in full through the interim grant, with the other nine having specific routes, journeys or days of operation being supported.

The services are:

•11: Watlington - Oxford (Sunday service, 4 journeys)

•40: Thame - High Wycombe (Sunday service, hourly)

•46: Wheatley - Cowley (Monday to Friday service, hourly)

•47: Lambourn - Swindon (route via Ashbury, Monday to Friday service, 5 journeys)

•63: Southmoor - Oxford (Monday to Friday service, 5 journeys)

•233: Woodstock - Witney (Sunday service, hourly)

•488: Chipping Norton - Banbury (Sunday service, two-hourly)

•H2: Carterton - John Radcliffe Hospital (Sunday service, 2-4 journeys)

•S4: Banbury - Oxford (Monday to Saturday evening service, 2 journeys)

•X8: Chipping Norton - Kingham (Monday to Friday service, 5-6 peak hour journeys)

•X9: Chipping Norton - Witney (Saturday service, enhanced to hourly)

•X38: Henley - Wallingford (Sunday service, hourly)

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Councillor Tim Bearder, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways Management, said: “Helping to improve the county’s bus services is one of the key aims of this administration when it comes to transport.

“We are happy to be able to keep these 12 enhanced services in operation for the people who rely on them.”