A NEW design for Gloucestershire bus services has been announced.

Gloucestershire County Council cabinetapproved a redesign of the network which will see community transport feed into market towns and more popular routes to ensure people can access vital services.

GCC must save £2million from its public transport budget as part of an overall plan to save £108million over the next four years. It announced last month that several under-used routes face the chop.

Several Cotswold services are at risk of being scrapped, including the 861 Kempsford to Cirencester route. The service has 3,480 annual passengers and costs GCC £31,306 to run each year - that works out at £17.99 for every return journey.

The new design will focus on community transport and other rural bus services becoming the ‘spokes’ that feed into the ‘hub’ market towns.

Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: "People understand that we cannot continue providing bus services in the way we are at the moment because it is just too expensive.

"The new design will ensure that people can to essential services and it will ensure that people in more isolated communities can get where they need to go using community transport."

Other Cotswold services under the spotlight include Southrop to Cirencester route and Bourton-on-the-Water to Evesham.