A PETITION signed by 2,500 people has been handed to county transport chiefs in protest at plans to axe public subsidies for a trio of Minehead bus services.

Minehead resident Tina Openshaw enlisted the help of friends who took just a month to amass the huge petition, which was presented to managers at Somerset County Council on Monday.

The authority is due to decide next month whether to withdraw funding from Webberbus' 100 and 101 Minehead town routes and the 106 service between Minehead and Doniford.

A separate service operated by Ridler Coaches, the 107 Luccombe to Wootton Courtenay to Minehead route, could also lose its subsidy under the county council cost-cutting plan.

Tina and her friends said they could not afford to use taxis and relied on the town buses to attend appointments and do their shopping.

One friend, who asked not to be named, told the Free Press she would effectively be housebound if the subsidies were cut and the services were subsequently withdrawn.

She said: "If we lost the buses I would be a prisoner in my own home as I literally would not be able to go anywhere.

"I'm sure it's the same for many of the elderly people who use the buses to do their shopping.

"There are a lot of hills around Minehead and there's no way older people would be able to walk up them carrying their shopping."

She also dismissed county council claims that people could use other bus services if the subsidies were cut and the routes were lost.

"I would be quicker trying to walk into town from my home than I would be trying to catch the other bus that the county council says I can use.

"It's nonsense to suggest people can use alternative services," she said.

The county council - which has already acknowledged that the loss of subsidies could lead to cuts in bus services - said it had no choice but to review the payments due to its own loss in Government funding.

The authority currently subsidises a total of 81 routes across the county which are not deemed to be commercially viable.

Around a dozen routes have been singled out for potential cuts due to either low passenger numbers, the availability or proximity of alternative services or the possibility of a commercial replacement.

In a statement on the council's website, a spokesman said "increasingly difficult" choices would have to be made in the face of ongoing local government spending cuts.

"Due to a continuing decrease in the amount of funding the Government gives the council to run local services, and to manage competing demands for services that the council is legally obliged to provide, Somerset County Council needs to review the amount of money it gives to support bus services.

"The council is not legally obliged to provide any public or community transport services, but does have a duty to secure public transport services which would not otherwise be provided, where the council feel this is appropriate.

"Increasingly, difficult choices will need to be made about where we provide support in the future."

A final decision on the proposed cuts is due to be taken by the council in February.