TWO councils have come under fire from a national charity for making what have been described as disastrous cuts to bus services.

Hartlepool and North Yorkshire councils feature in a list of the ten authorities in the country slashing bus services the most.

The list was compiled by sustainable transport charity Campaign for Better Transport, which today launches Save Our Buses, a campaign to protect local services.

Hartlepool Borough Council is one of three councils in the country proposing to cut all its supported bus services, including hospital and dial-aride schemes.

North Yorkshire County Council is cutting evening, Sunday and bank holiday services.

Richmondshire councillor Jill McMullon has campaigned against North Yorkshire’s bus cuts.

Backing the national campaign, she said: “Already the buses are scarce and they’re going to cut them altogether after 7pm and on bank holidays.

It’s going to have a huge impact on people’s lives.”

Richard Owens, North Yorkshire council’s assistant director for integrated passenger transport, said the authority was focusing on keeping daytime services, rather than evening and weekend buses, which were often used for leisure purposes.

He said: “We are aware the reducing the spending on buses by £600,000 is going to impact on people’s lives.”

Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond said his authority had been forced to find savings after its £93m budget was cut by a third over four years.

He said: “Given these unprecedented Government cuts, we face some extremely hard and unpalatable choices, including having to propose withdrawing our funding for supported bus services as part of the massive savings we must make.”

He urged bus companies to help by using their profits to maintain their less profitable bus services.

Save Our Buses argues that the cuts will hold back the economy, obstruct the delivery of other public services, reduce employment opportunities and magnify social problems.

Stephen Joseph, Campaign for Better Transport’s chief executive, said: “The Government said that spending cuts would be socially fair, but cuts to bus services will hit the poorest and most vulnerable hardest.

“These unprecedented cuts will be especially disastrous for people on low incomes and could effectively mean the death of rural bus services.”

Nationally, figures revealed by the Save Our Buses campaign show that 70 per cent of local authorities plan major cuts to their bus budgets, with 14 councils cutting support by more than £1m each.