Billericay Town Council has confirmed it is to stop subsidising the 256 bus route following a poor response from passengers.

The council announced earlier this year that it was reviewing the route, launched in August, after it emerged that no more than a handful of people were using it. Now council chairman, Trevor Stansfield, has confirmed it will scrap its subsidy after New Year's Eve.

The council stumped up more than £4,000 to support the 256 service, provided by Thamesway, which serves the Tye Common area.

It was then extended to six mornings a week but the council fears it will get little more than ten per cent of its money back.

It decided to finance the services following an extensive public consultation last year.

Mr Stansfield said: "It just hasn't been supported enough.

"It was identified a long time ago as a possible area where people wanted an extra bus service.

"But in the end the take-up was pretty poor. We identified a need which wasn't actually there.

"I'm not sorry we did it in the first place though. We dropped leaflets off in the area, and had quite a good response - but when it came to the crunch just a few people used it.

"We did as much as we could but it's very difficult to reach everybody.

"If we had been able to prove the bus company would have got an income from it they would have taken it over, and if it had broken even we might have considered keeping it running.

"But at the end of the day it wasn't financially viable."

Town clerk Gwynneth Moylan confirmed: "Use of the 256 route on the additional three days subsidised by Billericay Town Council since August 1 has been disappointingly low.

"In view of the substantial costs involved, it has been decided not to extend the experiment beyond December 31.

"The 256 service will continue to operate on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday."

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