FOLLOWING a public consultation, which saw over 11,000 people respond, Wiltshire Council has decided to cut £500,000 from subsidised bus services this week.

The slash in funding is only a fifth of what was originally proposed as cabinet member for transport Philip Whitehead told the public at Tuesday’s meeting that it was the overwhelming response from people about potential cuts that helped mould the recommendation.

It means people will still be able to make around 97 per cent of journeys in the county.

He said: “We had a fantastic response to the consultation. It really showed how much people value their local buses, and I am grateful to everyone who took the time to take part in the consultation.

“We believe that we can restrict journey disruptions to less than three per cent of services by reorganising times, better marketing and renegotiating contracts. Compared to a lot of other counties, I know our recommendation has a significantly lower impact on residents than other proposals.

“The information we had really has helped us, and I’m delighted we are proposing to buck the national trend and safeguard the services people really need.”

Half of the bus mileage in the county is subsidised by £5.1 million per year from Wiltshire Council as it is not commercially viable otherwise. The rest of the services in Wiltshire are operated on a commercial basis by various operators.

David Redgewell, from Bus Users UK who helped organise information sessions across the county during the consultation, told cabinet members that from the research they carried out, there were four main ingredients for people to use buses including quality, delivery, marketing and good customer care.

He added: “It is very important for Wiltshire to have a good public transport system especially to help with the night time economies to Salisbury, Bath and Swindon, trying to get youngsters to and from their education and for helping people travel to their employment.

“The majority of people we spoke to didn’t want bus cuts so we are happy with the recommendation.”

It was also agreed that the council works more closely with the health authority in regards to public transport which will first be discussed when a paper is given to the health and wellbeing board.

The council were unable to confirm the services which are likely to be reduced but said a consultation would be carried out with passengers on each service.