TWO valuable community bus services will seize to run this year, the council has confirmed.

Reading Borough Council will withdraw its funding from the 28 and 991 bus services, which cost the authority more than £100,000 per year to run.

A consultation sparked fears of isolation among elderly residents, who claimed they would not be able to do essential shopping, visit doctors, banks or friends and family.

Council officers had originally proposed to cut the service from April this year, but councillors decided to keep the services running until the end of the academic school year in July.

Speaking at Reading Borough Council's policy committee meeting on Monday, January 14, Cllr Tony Page, lead member for transport, said: "It is regrettable that we find ourselves in this position. We have reviewed this service on previous occasions.

"The use it or lose it message was given some years ago and unfortunately usage of the service has declined.

"We have had representations about the relatively short notice that will be given to parents and children using the educational legs of these services to allow a bit more phasing so we don't chop off the service in the middle of the academic year."

The buses, which run daily between Tilehurst and Caversham, stopping in central Reading, are frequented by elderly residents.

Fares and financial support only raised £69,000 last year, nearly £40,000 short of the £108,000 the service costs to run.

And the council nor Reading Buses can subsidise the gap.

Cllr Page said a free shuttle bus organised by Tesco staff on Napier Road has contributed to the service's decline in usage.

He added: "It is unfortunate that that leg has been undermined by Tesco's insistence to have a free bus service.

"It may have a good commercial imperative but they have persistently refused to talk to the council and Reading Buses about making better use of both our limited resources and their limited resources to deliver a more stable service."