Villagers say they are being cut off from the world after a bus company announced it will no longer serve them.

Thames Travel’s Go Ahead buses are to stop picking up passengers in Ardington on its number 32 service between Abingdon and Wantage next month.

Matilda Woodhill, 14, who takes the bus to Didcot Girls School every day, said: “It’s my lifeline to the rest of the world. I use the bus to do everything. My friends live in Didcot and Wantage. It is not like I can walk to Didcot.”

But Thames Travel said there was not enough passengers to make the diversion through the small village viable on its hourly service.

Oxfordshire County Council will be providing five return buses to the village between 9am and 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

It will also run three on Saturdays when the new timetable starts on December 11.

Residents will also be able to flag down the bus on the A417 but campaigners say that is a 10-minute walk and the road is too dangerous.

Miss Woodhill added: “It is terrible. The winter is coming and I will have to walk along a main road without any lights and without a footpath in the dark. It’s not safe.”

Her mum Robyn Volkers, 44, of Church Street, said: “As an adult I wouldn’t like to be crossing at busy times but with children and elderly people it’s not acceptable.

“It is an accident waiting to happen. It is outrageous they expect that to be the case.”

But Oxfordshire County Council says the hourly bus gets an average of 14 passengers a day.

Ms Volkers added: “It is the small villages by definition that don’t have as many people on them but the bus company has a social responsibility to take it on.

“It is chipping yet more away from village life.”

Campaigners have gathered hundreds of signatures protesting the move.

Therese Gilbert, 60, of Jubilee Cottages, said: “It is totally inconvenient and I really think we should have the service reinstated.

“What they have done is taken away our freedom to choose when we can come and go when we feel like it.”

Mum-of-two Nicky Hancock, 35, of High Street, said: “For me it will be a shame. My son really loves using the bus.”

Thames Travel general manager Max McCarthy said: “In order to make the service viable we need to ensure it is as attractive as possible to the majority of passengers.”