A COUNTY councillor says Stagecoach West is “throwing rural routes under the bus” by cutting back on services to shore up those in urban areas.

The bus company has announced it is planning to cut bus routes from mid-November which could affect up to 500,000 bus journeys a year in Gloucestershire.

The affected routes have not yet been revealed, but cabinet member for transport Phillip Robinson, who represents Mitcheldean, says the cuts will affect some of the county’s “most disadvantaged and isolated communities”.

Stagecoach says the move comes due to a national shortage of drivers.

Cllr Robinson said the announcement came as a shock to the council and that Stagecoach had wanted to implement the cuts as soon as October.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We have been landed in a very difficult situation because Stagecoach has put its commercial interest before that of some of our most disadvantaged and isolated communities in Gloucestershire.

“At the very least we are talking about a quarter of a million journeys every year in Gloucestershire that Stagecoach has pulled that we are going to have to find a solution for.

““The reason we’ve had to have this battle with Stagecoach is we can’t stop them pulling out of those routes but we can buy us that time to work on finding the solutions.”

He said the council can’t promise they will find a solution to every problem, but that what is important is “the willingness to succeed.”

“Some of the communities that will lose the buses are some of the most disadvantaged in Gloucestershire. Especially in those areas where there is some isolation due to their rurality”, he continued.

“We want to best serve those residents while at the same time treating the council taxpayer fairly. That’s what makes it a challenge.”

Stagecoach managing director Rachel Geliamassi said that staff shortages caused by a tough jobs market were behind the decision.

“To balance our network to our current resource, we have provided Gloucestershire County Council with a package of changes to update our network”, she said.

“These changes are designed to ensure we can deliver services consistently, day in day out, for our customers.

“As part of these changes, we have given notice to Gloucestershire County Council that we will no longer be able to run a small number of tendered services.

“We have provided formal notification which will allow Gloucestershire County Council to start a formal tender process to find alternative providers.

“Whilst this was a difficult decision, our priority is to ensure that we can successfully deliver on services that are used by the majority of our customers.”

The council has written to the Traffic Commissioner about the “poor service” provided by Stagecoach.

The announcement follows cuts made by Stagecoach back in February to services connecting Newent and Ross-on-Wye, which has prompted a community campaign to raise £250,000 for a new route between the Forest and South Herefordshire.

That campaign - led by local group Buses4Us - is gathering pace, with thousands already secured from local authorities, including £15,000 from Newent Town Council and an unexpected £1,000 pledge from Forest of Dean District Council.

A successful trial run for the route, linking Newent with Ross and Ledbury, was recently carried out and if Ross Town Council agree to a requested pledge, the group will be “within touching distance” of their target.