MORE than £100,000 is being found to help save High Wycombe's threatened bus services.

The money, from Buckinghamshire County Council, has been arranged in double quick time. The need for it followed the Arriva bus company's takeover of Wycombe Bus in December and its announcement last month that it was slashing loss-making services.

All that now remains is for Rodney Royston, the county council's cabinet member for transportation, to agree the money.

The subsidies should be in place by April 22, the date on which Arriva's cuts are set to happen.

Council officers have been looking at the routes affected since Arriva made its announcement. The council asked for tenders to run the subsidised services, received them on Tuesday and came up with a list late on Wednesday night.

Yesterday morning, county public transport officer John Hodgkins presented the list to county and district council members of the Wycombe Transport Strategy Panel.

Afterwards Mr Hodgkins told the Free Press that not all cuts could be avoided, but that the subsidies had been put into areas where passengers would have no bus at all if the service was cut. People would have a service, even if it was less frequent.

On the 308/309 service, Downley, Deeds Grove, Hicks Farm, the council is putting in almost £45,000 to pay for an extra bus operating all day. The 306, from High Wycombe to Totteridge Drive gets almost £7,000 to support off-peak services.

There is £47,000 to support the 304 Desborough to Micklefield in the evenings and on Sundays and £28,000 for the 315 service from Lane End to Bourne End, also in the evenings and on Sundays . There is £6,500 for the 345 pm peak services from High Wycombe to Great Missenden, and £29,000 for the 365 evening and Sunday service from High Wycombe to Penn.

The subsidised services will all be provided by Arriva.

The total subsidies of almost £172,000 are £124,000 more than the provision for this year and £24,000 more than it has available for the coming year. The extra money will have to come from savings or by grants, but for six months will come from a fund controlled by Wycombe's Transport Strategy Panel.