ENCOURAGE more people to use public bus services rather than cut them - that's the message from North Ryedale Public Transport Group.

The plea has been put forward to North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC), which is expected to debate the issue of reviewing subsidies to loss-making routes at its meeting at County Hall in Northallerton today.

Pickering town councillor Judy Dixon, the co-ordinator of the group, has sent a letter to NYCC's passenger transport unit urging a re-think of the proposals, which were revealed in last week's Gazette & Herald.

While the group welcomes the review, it is opposed to any withdrawal of services in northern Ryedale, says Coun Dixon.

"Some services are used by very few passengers, but to those people, they are a lifeline. Surely it would be better to work on getting the buses better used, rather than stopping them. Timetabling, fare structures and information provision need examining under the review."

Older people are not happy using taxi vouchers or 'ring and ride' schemes where they exist "because they do not want to be an imposition on others", she says. "These people value their freedom and the right bus gives them that freedom. The need to get more of their peer group using the scheduled service and the promised free travel will probably do just that."

Coun Dixon fears that jobs will be lost if the cuts go ahead. "Sunday, evening and remote rural services can provide a vital link to work, or sometimes to better work than can be found locally. Health and tourism are the main occupations in this area and both involve unusual hours of work."

She forecasts that many people aged 60 or over will take advantage of the new free travel scheme which comes into operation in April. "Many people will start using the day services to their local market towns, evening buses to see friends or to go to the pub or restaurant. Very soon afterwards, some of these services will be withdrawn.

"Removing significant parts of the public transport network when the free travel comes into operation will result in an even greater rural-urban divide than now exists."

The group, says Coun Dixon, wants NYCC to make bus travel more attractive and reliable by introducing more bus waiting and timetable facilities and even bus priority areas in such towns as Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside and Malton.

She also fears that cutting services will result in more people using their own transport and, with it, the potential for more road accidents.

Community transport, she says, is not a suitable alternative. There are currently problems of recruiting volunteer drivers, who face unsocial hours.

At last week's meeting of NYCC's Coast and Moors area committee at Whitby, the leader of the council, Coun John Weighell, said the authority spent £4 million a year on passenger transport and was looking to save £200,000.

Well-used services would not be affected, he said, only those where buses carried just one or two passengers. Some passengers' journeys were subsidised to more than £20 each, said Coun Weighell, who added that action was being taken to seek more funding for community transport schemes.

Updated: 15:47 Wednesday, February 15, 2006