Council to extend bus grant

HENLEY Town Council could pay to retain the town’s bus services until the spring.

It has already put £9,000 towards the cost of keeping them running until December.

Now the council’s finance strategy and management committee has recommended that another £1,500 is made available every month from January to March in case it is needed.

The council has been funding Whites Coaches’s 151 to 154 services from the town centre to outlying areas since April last year when Oxfordshire County Council scrapped all its bus subsidies.

The extra money will come from community infrastructure levy payments, which are contributions made by developers as part of planning permission for housing to mitigate the effects of development.

The council’s bus working group is investigating ways of making the bus services support themselves on a commercial basis.

A final decision will be made by the full council on Tuesday.