BUS routes across East Surrey face the chop in drastic cash-saving proposals drawn up by the County Council.

Under the plans school bus services – including routes to St Bede's, Redhill, East Surrey College, Oakwood School, Horley, Reigate School, Woodhatch, and Reigate College – are also under threat.

Ian Lake, Surrey County Council's cabinet member for transport, said he understands not everyone will be happy with the proposals, which are out for public consultation until January 31, 2010.

He told The Mirror: "We won't please everybody but we want to do the best we can for those that use the bus service. It's not a perfect solution and clearly some people won't get what they want."

The council said the review has been driven by worried members of the public who are concerned about the number of empty buses driving around.

Cllr Lake said: "There are no easy answers but it would be irresponsible for us to continue to support lesser used routes at the cost of ones that people use the most.

"We've been working on this review for 18 months and we're taking a very considered approach. In the past bus routes have gone bust because they have lost too much.

"This will be a fairly robust consultation and we will be trying to make it a sensible bus service."

Some services will improve under the proposals, including the 100 service which serves Redhill and East Surrey Hospital and will increase in frequency to every 15 minutes.

But other services, including the 324, which takes people from Redhill to the Tesco Extra store in Hookwood, face the axe because of what the council calls a "modest level of useage".

The motive behind the cuts follows a hike in costs to subsidise the bus service, which has tripled in the last eight years due to rising fuel costs and insurance.

More than £11 million will be spent on running it this year with £1.7 million of that used to run the school special routes.

Cllr Lake added: "Only four per cent of the 60,000 secondary school children living in Surrey use the school special routes.

"That's £750 a year in subsidy to transport each child to school."

Quizzed on the impact the plans posed to the council's environmental policies, Mr Lake said: "We are supporting our environmental policies but it's not environment at any price."

And he refuted claims the council was struggling after losing £20 million in the Icelandic banking disaster of last year.

He said: "The Iceland thing is still going on but it's had no affect on our deliberation on this."

But he added a "disgraceful" cutback in Government funding had put the council in a difficult position.

This will be the first of three phases of change across the county.

A spokesman for Metrobus, which runs many bus services in Surrey said the company was working closely with the council to minimise any effect the reduction in subsidy will have on services.

He said: "Inevitably there will be a reduction in service in some areas but in some cases we may be able to actually operate more buses and provide new links.

"We would urge bus users to give their views to the council in order to help shape the final network."