BUS users in South Gloucestershire are being urged to sign a petition against government funding cuts, which could jeopardise services in the district.

Transport chiefs at the local authority want residents to petition the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, asking that the government drops its plans to slash the district’s bus budget by £340,000.

The cut is part of plans announced by the Department for Transport at the end of last year to change the distribution of funding for the national concessionary travel scheme.

The concessionary travel scheme, which provides free bus travel for older residents, should be government-funded, however South Gloucestershire Council already uses £1.1 million of local money to support the scheme.

A further £340,000 cut in funding would take the annual shortfall up to nearly £1.5 million.

Local transport bosses have also said that other rural bus services could be affected by the cut such as the demand-led buses that were due to be trialled in parts of the district.

A consultation into the cuts ended in December but leaders at South Gloucestershire Council want local people to sign the Downing Street petition and write to the Prime Minister and Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary.

Cllr Brian Allinson, South Gloucestershire Council’s executive member for transport, said: "Ministers have consistently failed to provide an acceptable justification for ripping up a three year funding deal in its third year and treating South Gloucestershire so harshly.

"It’s not even as if this funding cut is going towards paying off the soaring national debt – the government is simply taking £340,000 away from one of the lowest funded councils in the country and giving it to someone else.

"Even though the Government has now closed its formal consultation, we need local people to keep the pressure up on Ministers and to strengthen the council’s robust consultation response opposing these plans."

The petition can be accessed through the Downing Street website, http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/sglosbuscuts/ Information on the Department for Transport proposals can be found at, www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/specialgrantfunding