CRITICS of Bournemouth's bus services claim weekend and evening services could be slashed soon.

They fear the proposed shake-up of Yellow Buses routes will go a step further within months.

And Bournemouth council has been warned it may have to subsidise numerous routes to meet social needs.

Labour councillor Ben Grower opposed the privatisation of Yellow Buses in December 2005 and said the council will now be forced to plug the gaps when non-profitable routes are axed.

"When bus companies are privatised the trend is that they only run routes which are extremely profitable" he said.

"I believe that the next thing will be cuts to weekend and evening services. They will do exactly what they want, when they want and we warned the council that this would happen if they sold the bus company."

Earlier this week the Daily Echo revealed plans to change many of the company's routes from July 22. Some areas, including Hengistbury Head, will no longer be served while the number of buses serving popular routes will increase. Yellow Buses will no longer go to Fairmile or Christchurch Hospital.

Hengistbury Head resident Pamela Sisley told the Daily Echo: "I am nearly 80 and my husband is 86 and we cannot walk to Belle Vue Road to get the bus - it is very awkward."

A spokesman for Transdev Yellow Buses told the Echo: "In an ideal world we would like to run buses to every destination in the area but, ultimately, a service has to be based on demand.

"A number of our routes have seen significant increases in patronage - unfortunately this does not apply to all sections of all services.

"The sad fact is that where not enough people are travelling on these sections of our routes then very reluctantly we have had to make a number of changes."

He stressed that any route which cannot be sustained as a commercial operation can be considered for support by the local authority.