CHANGES are being made to a number of Yellow Bus service routes around the area.

From next Sunday, the company will be introducing new timetables to bus routes serving parts of Bournemouth and East Dorset.

They will affect routes 4a, 4b and 4c as well as the 24 and A1.

The changes include providing a new service between Bournemouth and the Aviation Business Park, as reported yesterday in the Daily Echo.

This would also serve Winton, Moordown, Northbourne and Parley Cross and would change the number and route of the airport service from A1 to 14.

In a bid to improve the punctuality and reliability of the routes 4a, 4b and 4c, the company are making a number of changes.

The routes serve Bear Cross, Bearwood, Bournemouth, Castlepoint, Ferndown, Kinson, Moordown, Muscliffe, Northbourne, Parley, Rail Station, Tricketts Cross, West Moors and Winton.

It comes after feedback from passengers and will include a Monday to Saturday only service on route 4c, with reduced frequency and less journeys to Ferndown Industrial Estate.

A new 4b service on Monday to Saturday evenings will be added, with improved co-ordination on routes 4a and 4c to provide a better frequency of buses between Bearwood and Bournemouth.

A winter timetable will be operated on route 24, with frequencies reduced to hourly, and the Sunday service pulled.

The route serves Alum Chine, Bournemouth and Westbourne.

It comes after the 24 route stopped running to Burton this summer due to a lack of funding.

Yellow Buses said they had "no choice" but to make the changes following the withdrawal of funding from Dorset County Council.

The county needed to save £500,000 on their subsidised public transport.

The route has been taken on by Morebus on a reduced timetable after protests by residents fearful the lack of public transport would leave villagers isolated.

Full timetables can be found at bybus.co.uk.