THE boss of a North Somerset bus company will meet with officials in Clevedon to see if a popular bus service can be saved from being axed.

The owner of Nailsea-based North Somerset Coaches, David Fricker, is due to meet with Clevedon town councillors to analyse whether he could run a replacement for the 800 service once it is stopped in April.

It is currently subsidised by North Somerset Council but will be axed as part of the authority’s cost-cutting measures.

David will meet with town councillors to explain why he thinks the service has not been successful, with a view to introducing an alternative. This would need financial support until it became self sufficient.

He said: “We would need to reduce the hours of operation and simplify the routes.

“We will certainly look at it and see if there is anything we can do to help it survive.”

Meanwhile, two regular users of the 800 bus, which travels around much of Clevedon, have written to North Somerset Council’s executive member for transport, Elfan Ap Rees, inviting him to see for himself how difficult it will be for people once the service is axed.

The council’s deputy leader has previously said the move would simply mean passengers having to change buses to get from A to B rather than staying on the same one.

This has been sternly refuted by Maureen Rutley and Jocelyn Davies.

Maureen, aged 78 of Sercombe Park, said: “There is no way the normal buses serve the 800 route. The man is talking out of the back of his head. They’ve got no conception of the people they are affecting.”