BUS services are being targetted in a bid by Gloucestershire County Council to shave £2m from its transport budget.

The council has published a list of the ten most highly subsidised routes – in other words routes which cost the public purse the most.

Three are in the Forest area.

•Route 666 from Newent to Ross-on-Wye which costs the council £22.86 per journey and carries just 150 passengers annually.

•Route 678 from Newent to Gloucester which carries 1,275 passengers a year and costs the council £15.56 a journey.

•Routes 708, 709 and 738 serving the Coleford area and St Briavels which carry 2,304 passengers yearly and cost the council £6.76 a journey.

The cost cutting exercise will be kicked off with what is described as a "fundamental review of bus routes."

In a statement the council says: "Continuing to provide services in this way is not making effective use of public funds and is totally unsustainable.

"The review we are carrying out is to work out which services are viable and which services we can no longer pay for in their current form."

Councillor Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: "It is clear from these figures that we cannot continue providing services as we are now. With some subsidies running into tens of pounds for each return journey it is not sustainable or fair that taxpayers should continue to foot this bill.

"Our review of services will look at every single service to see where we can make improvements as well as making savings at the same time as ensuring people have access to fundamental places like work, school or medical treatment.

"This won't be easy and some services will hve to stop or significantly change in future."

Drop in sessions will be arranged in the coming weeks and questionnaires asking what people think of bus services will be available online at http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/transport">www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/transport from this week.