Oxfordshire dial-a-ride service to be cut

The Oxford Times reports:

Oxford is set to lose one of its two over-subscribed dial-a-ride buses.

Oxfordshire County Council is set to fund one bus a day, five days a week in the city and in each of the county’s four other districts.

The city currently has two buses a day, Cherwell has five to seven, West Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse one and South Oxfordshire none.

The county has agreed to take over the service – where OAPs and the disabled call for lifts – from district councils from April 1 because of cost concerns.

Yet it says it cannot afford to keep the service's current £470,000-a-year funding - which comes from a number of different councils - and can only put in £158,000.

A county report said the current city service helped 16,000 people a year and was “fully utilised”.