CUTS to bus services in Wiltshire are set to kick in this month.

Wiltshire Council launched a consultation into cutting subsidised bus routes last year.

The Journal led a campaign against any cuts, backed by more than 6,000 readers, and presented it to decision-makers at County Hall.

Transport chief Philip Whitehead slammed this newspaper and said the council was "not making any cuts".

But just five months later the council confirmed it would in fact be slashing £500,000 from the transport budget by cutting subsidised services.

Now, details are emerging about which services face the axe.

A poster on a bus stop in Amesbury is displaying the following message: "Following the consultation exercise carried out last year, Wiltshire Council has been reviewing those council-funded bus services that are expensive to operate when compared with the number that use them.

"This includes the buses on Sundays and public holidays that run between Swindon, Marlborough, Pewsey and Salisbury which Wiltshire Council pay the Stagecoach bus company to operate.

"Unfortunately these journeys are very expensive to provide and there are very few passengers that use them to travel south of Marlborough.

"We therefore regret that it will not be possible for Wiltshire Council to continue funding the operation from Swindon and Marlborough on Sundays or on Public Holidays and so the last day of operation of Stagecoach bus service 5 will be 26 March 2017.

"We realise that this decision will be a great disappointment to those passengers that use the Sunday Stagecoach journeys on service 5 and we hope you will be able to travel instead on other days on the Salisbury Reds service X5, which will still run between Salisbury and Swindon every weekdays and Saturdays."

Wiltshire Council has been asked which other routes, if any, will be affected.