LIFELINE Porlock and Minehead bus services have been saved for another year after four local councils agreed this week to fork out a total of £13,000 to keep them on the road until March 2018.

First Bus subsidiary Buses of Somerset was due to pull out of the Minehead-Porlock and Minehead town services at the end of December but agreed to continue until March this year after the councils picked up the £3,000 bill.

And at a meeting on Tuesday, headed by the county council, Minehead Town Council and Porlock Parish Council agreed to keep the services going by each providing a£6,000 subsidy, while Luccombe and Selworthy-and-Minehead-Without parish councils will contribute £500 each.

The reduced 10 and 10A joint services, which local councils are now subsidising at the rate of £50 a day, will continue to run four times a day, five days a week while further long-term funding strategies are explored.

“It’s fantastic that the parishes have come to the rescue and saved what could have been a very serious situation,” said deputy district council leader and Minehead councillor Mandy Chilcott.

But Minehead mayor Cllr Jean Parbrook, while supporting the rescue plan, complained that in Minehead the revised timetable “was not really working” and there had been many complaints in the town that buses were now too infrequent and no longer ran on Saturdays.

She told the Free Press: “A lot of residents are saying that the present service, although they are very grateful for it, is simply not working for them.

“The main problem is that buses are now running once every three hours and many people don’t want to stay in town that long before getting a bus home.

“At the meeting we suggested to First Bus there should be a two-hour service and they have agreed to look into the possibility of amending the timetable.”