Further to Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst’s somewhat muddled letter last week (‘Help us to save your under-threat services’, Your Views, July 25), and whilst I cannot confirm his figures, it is clear that bus services that run during the evening and on Sundays are grossly under-used and therefore represent a conundrum for the county council.

The current approach to cut down congestion on the roads – a significant economic and environmental cost to all of us – is to encourage bus and bicycle travel, whilst making it less desirable financially and otherwise to use cars.

Unfortunately, reducing the subsidies available to bus companies does not contribute to this desirable objective. If bus services are viable financially, operators will run them without subsidies.

So if you do not want your council taxes spent on uneconomic transport services, the answer (it seems to me) is that if residents wish to retain bus services, they must not only respond to the consultation, but also make more use of the services in question.

Further to that, I would like to see any reduction in subsidies limited to later services so that, for example, shoppers and retail staff in Watford are able to use the 306 to return to Borehamwood using a 7pm departure. I believe this would be a reasonable compromise.

Cllr Clive Butchins

Con/Brookmeadow ward, Hertsmere Borough Council Chairman, Transport & Road Safety Forum, Elstree & Borehamwood Town Council