A PARISH chief has criticised Hampshire County Council for its “appalling” consultation on cuts to rural buses near Winchester.

Littleton and Harestock Parish Council chairman John Biddlecombe said the council’s cost-cutting restructure will render village buses “useless” and leave elderly people isolated, without a way into the city.

And he criticised their plan to axe services, saying there had been no discussion with the local council which could have helped find a solution.

As previously reported, subsidised buses across the county will be reduced or stopped altogether from January as the county council bids to save £1.5 million from its transport bill.

The frequency of the former 68 bus, which runs to Peter Symonds College through villages such as Crawley, Littleton and Stockbridge, will shrink by more than half outside of term time.

The new timetable means that, for 14 weeks of the year, villagers must travel to Winchester at 9am to stand a chance of returning that day, facing a three-and-a-half-hour wait for the journey home.

Cllr Biddlecombe said more practical timings could have been negotiated but the lack of consultation was “appalling”.

He said: “We know that it’s going to get cut, but not totally decimated like they have done, to give us a bus service which is useless. What’s the point if you can’t get back home again?

“Had they spoken to us we could have come to some sort of agreement with them.”

He added that parish councils might be forced to supply their own subsidised service for elderly people who rely on buses for food shopping, something they can “absolutely not afford”.

The county council came under fire across Hampshire this summer for not advertising its three-month consultation widely enough. 

Its survey asked residents, businesses and community groups which services they would least like to cut without discussing details of new timetables.

Hampshire transport chief Cllr Seán Woodward, pictured, said the parish council took part in the consultation and his new timetable is “based on the use of the previous service”.

“When we’re discussing roads, everyone’s an engineer,” he said. “When we’re discussing buses, everyone naturally professes an expertise in bus services.

“The significant reduction in government funding meant that the previous timetables were unaffordable.”