A LEADING bus operator has warned that plans to slash subsidies by up to 45 per cent could spark drastic cuts in the New Forest.

Wilts & Dorset is set to review many of its Lymington-based services – and says the outcome may make it harder for villagers to reach shops and other facilities.

Rural communities will be left even more isolated if the company has to alter routes, run vehicles less frequently or scrap some services altogether.

Ed Wills, Wilts & Dorset’s divisional director, said: “Very few of the routes in the Forest are sustainable without subsidies.

“With a potential reduction in funding of 45 per cent we may have no choice but to cut services and look carefully at our future within the New Forest area.”

Hampshire County Council is poised to reduce the amount it pays bus companies to operate lesser-used routes.

The rural bus subsidy grant, which supports non-commercially viable journeys in the countryside, is paid directly to the council by the Government. However, the grant has been cut by a third for the current year, with further reductions planned for 2012-13.

Mr Wills added: “We’ll try our best to provide a comprehensive service so that residents in the area are still able to access shops and leisure facilities, but the service is likely to be on a reduced basis.

“The cuts could force many people to return to car travel.

“This does not sit well with the need to reduce pollution. The New Forest deserves a ‘greener’ approach to travel.”

Councillor Mel Kendal, the county council’s executive member for environment and transport and a former leader of New Forest District Council, said: “Around 85 per cent of bus services in the county already operate without any subsidy from us.

“To live within our reduced means we have had to look carefully at those services that do receive a subsidy.

“It is important to understand that the rural bus subsidy grant we receive from the Government has been cut by a third. We also have to make savings that will help meet the council’s £55m funding gap.

“We’ve worked with bus operators across Hampshire to review how we can most effectively use the reduced funds.”

Cllr Kendal said the council had also consulted passengers, whose answers would help the authority shape its proposals for the future of bus subsidies.

Decisions are due to be announced on July 27.

“We aim to ensure that communities which currently have a public or community transport link are not left entirely dependent on the private car.”