Firstly, on behalf of all those who helped collect the signatures, I would like to thank the 4,000 plus residents who signed the petitions we presented to Hertfordshire County Council opposing the bus cuts.

As you know, the Conservatives had proposed to cut all county supported bus services after 6.30pm in the evening and all services on a Sunday – affecting some 58 routes and cutting 809,000 passenger trips.

There was no need to do this as the stated aim of these cuts was to “save around £700,000 from the bus budget in 2015/16”. In fact, due to underspends and bus grants from the Government, there is already an expected saving of £753,000 this year and for the next two years.

It was, therefore, not unreasonable to expect the Conservatives to listen to the views of residents in the official consultation on bus changes, which showed just 30 people out of 4,548 supported these cuts, and the 12,000 signatures from across the county that signed petitions against them.

So I moved at the highways meeting a Liberal Democrat motion to not proceed with any bus cuts and instead to look at how services could be improved and routes enhanced to increase bus usage and reduce subsidy levels.

I, and my fellow Lib Dem councillors, were shocked when our motion was voted down by the Conservatives, who then instead voted to cut another £1.5m (on top of the underspend/savings) from the bus budget.

They have now voted a plan through for a further expensive consultation (it’s legally required) to cut all services after 7.30pm Monday to Saturday, all services on Sunday, except for those that serve hospitals up to 7.30pm, and cut the bus subsidy for all other routes, which could mean some 29 bus route being cut totally seven days a week.

So the Tories at County Hall are now planning to reduce the spend on buses by £2.2m out of the current budget of £3.8m – some 58 per cent. It is no good them using the excuse they need to make savings – they already have from this budget. And where is the 58 per cent cut in their press and publicity department? Well, there is none.

Hertfordshire Tories showed they are heartless and want to cut the only means of transport for tens of thousands of residents, whether to get to work, hospital, shopping or just going out. This will leave tens of thousands of people without access to public transport when they need it.

We cannot allow this cull of our public transport service to happen and will be fighting from now until next May, when the final decision is made, to stop this and urge residents to respond to the consultation, it comes out in January, and sign ours and others petitions.

Our Tory MP has remained silent on this and not written one letter to the county about these cuts. I wonder why.

Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst

County councillor for Central Watford and Oxhey; Liberal Democrat Group leader, Hertfordshire County Council; Liberal Democrat opposition spokesman on highways