Plans to axe 12 bus services thrown out

Powys County Council wanted to put an end to some services in Welshpool, Newtown, Llanfair Caereinion and Llanrhaeadr as it tries to save up to £500,000 from its transport budget.

A report to the council's cabinet said the saving would be £464,000.

But members rejected the plans and decided instead to look at the council's transport service as a whole and see where more fundamental changes could be made.

Councillor Barry Thomas, cabinet member for transport, said: "Publicly supported transport provision across the county must be fair and equitable even if that service is provided with vastly reduced resources.

"We have considered a number of options to meet budget reductions and concluded that although capable of delivering the necessary savings the impact on service delivery is not equitable and impacts rural communities.

"We have asked for a fundamental review examining all integrated public service transport provision to see if other options are available to us.By delaying the decision we can widen the scope of the review and identify saving of up to 20 per cent, meeting our current target and future reductions needed as a result of the comprehensive spending review.

"We believe if we adopt a positive commissioning approach to the issue we will be able to come up with more acceptable options."

The council had been expected to accept the plans and companies such as Celtic Travel and Owens of Oswestry which provide services in the area had been informed and reacted with "an appreciation of the current financial situation but also obvious disappointment", according to Councillor Thomas.

In his report, Councillor Thomas had said: "In January, the cabinet approved the council's medium term financial plan which identified a saving of £500,000 to be taken from the public transport budget.

"It is acknowledged that the proposals set out in this report will receive very negative feedback and objections. However we have to bear in mind that Powys County Council has been on the receiving end, and looks to continue to be at the end of very poor settlements from the Welsh Government, so these measures are being applied to ensure essential services can be maintained."