MOST of the bus routes under threat in Dorset will be saved and commuters will not lose vital links to London, Dorset County Council says.

Bus company First South West is to withdraw seven routes in Dorset in July and residents were due to discuss the implications at a public meeting in Shaftesbury on May 23.

Buses between the hilltop town and Gillingham, and from Blandford to Yeovil, are to be discontinued as they are unprofitable.

And Transport 2000 - a pressure group which lobbies for public transport as a means of sustaining rural communities and cutting greenhouse gases - has expressed concerns.

Spokesperson David Redgewell said: "This is quite a major withdrawal of bus services.

"It covers a huge chunk of North and West Dorset plus south Somerset and south Wiltshire - 17,000 people a week will be affected.

"One depot in Gillingham and one near Dorchester will be shutting down."

He expressed particular concern for the rail-link bus between Shaftesbury and Gillingham station.

"Commuters to London will be left without any bus links. This is very devastating stuff," he said.

But Dorset transport chief Peter Impett said Dorset would shell out more money.

"We have brought the operators together saying 'These are the circumstances - what can you do to help us'? and we're sifting through that information," he said.

"We aren't going to replace exactly what's been there before - timings might be different, the level of service might not be the same and we have got to find out how much it's going to cost .

"But I'm confident we will have something in place by July 26. In some places things might even be better.

"Certainly no one will be left without and certainly between Shaftesbury and Gillingham there's going to be some sort of service."

First published: May 24