BUS passengers- particularly those who regularly use services under threat- are being urged to join a mass lobby of county councillors next week.

Protest group Cambridgeshire Against The Cuts believe that only by lobbying a Cabinet meeting at Shire Hall, Cambridge, can pressure be brought to ensure subsidies stay.

Andrew Osborne, secretary of the group, said one main service in Fenland under threat is service 33 which operates between March and Peterborough via Whittlesey.

He also said it was important to keep pressure to maintain service 9, the route linking Ely, Littleport and March to Cambridge.

The 35 service bus route linking March and Huntingdon and designed, said Mr Osborne for commuters, is also threatened.

Elsewhere Norfolk Green’s 46 route from Wisbech through Wisbech St Mary to March was also threatened.

“Cambridgeshire is a rural county with very little transportation infrastructure and the rural bus routes are vital,” said Mr Osborne.

“Cuts to these bus routes will affect the poor, the unemployed and pensioners.”

Mr Osborne said a year ago the council announced plans to withdraw all subsidies to bus routes in Cambridgeshire, a proposal adopted in the face of opposition from Cambridgeshire Against the Cuts, the Campaign for better transport and other campaigners.

He said of all local authorities in the country Cambridgeshire County Council’s was the biggest cut in bus subsidy of 100 per cent or �2.7 million.

Mr Osborne said they launched a legal challenge to the county council’s subsidy withdrawal plan launched and later the council “conceded defeat and agreed to suspend the programme of cuts and conduct a new consultation. “

It is that consultation that will be debated on Tuesday.