PROPOSALS as to how Hampshire County Council can ensure essential public transport is maintained for the widest section of the community while meeting savings targets will be scrutinised by a cross party committee this week.

A public consultation exercise was carried out earlier this year to establish residents’ priorities for County Council subsidies for public transport against a backdrop of spending reductions.

Over 3,000 individual responses were received across the county after questionnaires were handed out on buses, by parish councils, post offices and at passenger transport forums.

The County Council needs to find £100million of savings by March 2015, and is looking closely at the current spend of £4.7million on supporting bus services and ferries across Hampshire that are not run by private operators.

A further £1million is spent on supporting community transport services, and £13.5million on the national concessionary fares scheme.

Following scrutiny at the economy, transport and environment select committee on Thursday, proposals on any changes to bus subsidies and concessionary fares will be decided by Councillor Seán Woodward, the executive member for economy, transport and environment at Hampshire County Council.

He said: “I am very grateful for all the input we’ve received so far from Hampshire’s residents and passenger transport groups. This will help us make an informed decision which is fair to all of Hampshire’s residents.

“The information we have has been enormously useful in telling us residents’ transport priorities and also about how they currently use public and community transport.

“Some routes we subsidise, such as evening services, are now little used; some are provided jointly with district councils and some community transport schemes are provided very efficiently by the voluntary sector.”

He added: “With £1 in every £3 of our total roads and transport revenue budget going into subsidising public and community transport, it is essential we look carefully at how we can use the money we have fairly for all Hampshire’s residents.

“We've undertaken this review and extensive consultation to make sure we can use what resources we have to best match people’s priorities at a time when public finances are under particular pressure.”