When Jill White, 53, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, she had three years of treatment, including operations and chemotherapy. It was a stressful enough experience to go through, but White, who is single and doesn’t drive, also faced a four-hour round trip, on a good day, to get to a hospital that was only 13 miles away, because buses from her village of Tatworth, Somerset only run on average every two hours.

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“My appointments were often at 9am, so to get to Taunton hospital I would have to leave by 7am,” she says. “And then, even though I would be really tired after treatment, I faced another two-hour trip to get home again. Four hours was a good journey. It could have quite easily been a lot longer.”

White says the service used to be quite good. “When I first moved here 20 years ago, there was a bus every hour, evening, weekend and bank holiday – and they were reasonably punctual. Now they are often 30 minutes late, there are no buses on Sundays or bank holidays – and nothing after 6pm.” White’s situation is far from unique. A report last week by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) found that local authority funding for bus routes in England and Wales has been cut by 45% since 2010 and more than 3,000 routes reduced or scrapped. This prompted the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to raise the bus issue in parliament during last week’s prime minister’s questions, where he promised to “save” the bus industry and give all those aged under 26 free bus travel.

Many bus services are run commercially, mainly financed by passenger fares. Councils may then choose to subsidise those routes that are economically unviable but deemed important to maintain. Yet cash-strapped councils are being forced to reduce or scrap these subsidised bus services.

Lots of people do not have access to any public transport – and have to rely on taxis or beg neighbours for lifts

The CBT report found that 14 have slashed funding to zero and no longer spend anything on supporting buses. They include Cumbria, which spent £8.1m on bus routes in 2010; Oxfordshire, which spent £5.8m; and Bristol, which spent £5.1m. A further five have cut more than 90% of funding. Steve Chambers, CBT’s public transport campaigner, says: “Bus routes up and down the country are disappearing at an alarming rate, and these cuts show no signs of slowing. We are seeing the slow death of the local bus and there seems to be very little political will to do anything about it.” Chambers says that while some routes have either been altered or reduced in frequency, many have been removed entirely. “Once a route is gone, it is very difficult to get it back. Lots of people are now in the situation where they do not have access to any public transport at all and are forced to rely on expensive taxis or beg neighbours for lifts.”

The findings follow a report by the Local Government Association last month, which warned that nearly half of all bus routes in England are fully or partially subsidised by councils and were therefore under threat due to government austerity. Martin Tett, the LGA’s transport spokesman, says: “Buses provide a vital service for our communities and a lifeline for our most vulnerable residents to go shopping, pick up medication, attend doctor’s appointments or socialise with friends. Councils know how important buses are for their residents and local economies and are desperate to protect them.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Buses provide a vital service for our most vulnerable residents to go shopping, pick up medication, attend doctor’s appointments or socialise with friends.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The impact of bus cuts on communities is not just practical – they also contribute to greater social isolation. “We lead a very lonely life,” says White. “We do not leave the house very often. The only people we see are the Amazon and Tesco delivery men.”

Part of the reason councils cannot afford to keep subsidising local buses is the cost of financing the free bus pass scheme. It’s mandatory to finance the concessionary travel scheme in England, which provides pensioners and disabled people with free off-peak travel on all local bus services. But the LGA estimates that there is at least a £200m shortfall for funding free bus passes, because the government does not reimburse the true cost of providing it. As councils struggle to pay for social care and other statutory services – the local government funding gap is predicted to exceed £5bn by 2020 – subsidised bus routes have become an easy victim of cuts.

“It’s nearly impossible for councils to keep subsidising free travel while having to find billions of pounds worth of savings and protect other vital services like caring for the elderly, filling potholes and collecting bins,” says Tett.

But research suggests bus cuts are a false economy. A 2016 study by KPMG and the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds on behalf of the Green Journeys campaign found that buses were crucial for local economies, residents’ wellbeing and reducing deprivation. Claire Haigh, chief executive of Greener Journeys, says: “Bus travel is a vital driver of economic growth in the UK – more people commute to work by bus than all other forms of public transport combined. Every £1 invested in bus infrastructure can generate more than £8 of wider economic benefits. A 10% improvement in bus services would lead to almost 10,000 more people in work in the poorest neighbourhoods in England.”

David Brown, chief executive of one of the biggest bus operators, Go-Ahead Group, which runs just under 700 routes – around 10% of which are subsidised – agrees. He says cutting local buses is shortsighted. “These cuts will overwhelmingly hit jobseekers, people on low incomes and those who cannot afford a car,” he says. “Buses are the poor relation of public transport. There’s no five-year plan for buses [like there is for air, roads, rail, cycling and even walking], yet one bus can take 75 cars off the roads.”

“Politicians are fixated on their legacy. They like to open shiny new infrastructure. But rail is regressive in terms of expenditure. You can achieve much more much more quickly by investing in buses.” Brown says that where possible, Go Ahead will work with local authorities to keep subsidised routes open and weave them into one of his commercial routes. “If you are trying to go from A to B on one of councils’ subsidised routes and that route disappears, you aren’t then going to go from B to C on one of my routes.”Not all local authorities are slashing bus routes. North East Lincolnshire, Durham, Nottingham, Cornwall and Devon have all increased their funding for buses. Richard Stevens, managing director of Plymouth Citybus, says that Cornwall, Devon and Plymouth councils all have the political will to maintain bus routes. “They recognise the importance of buses for social inclusion, economic growth and future prosperity,” he says.

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Back in Tatworth, White is worried about the impact the lack of transport will have on her 16-year-old daughter, who is due to start A-levels at Exeter college in September. She will catch a train from Axminster, only five miles away. But because the buses are so infrequent and don’t connect with other services, she will have to leave the house at 6am to get to college on time – and won’t get home until 7pm.

“It’s unbelievable that in 21st-century Britain I can’t easily get my child to a railway station that’s only five miles away,” she says.

A Department for Transport spokeswoman says: “We recognise that buses are vital in connecting people, homes and businesses, and that’s why we have given local councils extra powers to work in partnership with bus companies to improve the services passengers expect and deserve.

“We provide around £250m every year to support bus services and a further £1bn to support older and disabled people using the free bus pass scheme.”