RESIDENTS in Berinsfield fear they will be "isolated" by cuts to their bus services and unable to visit their favourite shops in Cowley.

Last month Thames Travel announced it would will close 13 of its bus routes in Oxfordshire on Saturday, July 23, due to subsidy cuts.

For Berinsfield this will mean the end of the T2 service to Templars Square in Cowley and the 97 service to Didcot and Wallingford.

There will also be timetable changes to the 114 service, which picks up passengers in Berinsfield, Wallingford and Abingdon.

Former Pressed Steel worker and father-of-two David Lee, 76, who lives in the village with wife Jennifer, 74, said: "There are about 2,000 people living on the estate and Berinsfield will end up being really isolated.

"You can walk to the A4074 to catch the X39 and X40 services to Oxford, Wallingford and Reading but they don't go to the Cowley shopping centre, which the T2 serves.

"Lots of people on the estate don't have cars and there are pensioners in their nineties who will not want to cross the A4074 to catch a bus there.

"Even if one bus service would be saved that would be something - the most popular one is the T2."

Mr Lee and his wife Jennifer, who live in Wey Road, do not own a car and their son Christopher sometimes gives them a lift to the shops.

Mrs Lee added: "Lots of families go the Cowley centre on the T2 because there is a much bigger variety of shops there.

"On the estate we have a couple of mini-supermarkets, a fish and chip shop, the swimming pool and a hairdressers but people want more choice.

"People take their pushchairs on the T2 with their kids - it will be very badly missed.

"If you want to do a proper shop you have to get off the estate it's not going to be easy once these services are gone.

"It will be even worse once the winter comes."

South Oxfordshire District Council leader John Cotton, also ward councillor for Berinsfield, said that although there was a good bus service on the A4074 it was understandable that people on the estate wanted the option to shop in Cowley.

He added: "SODC's new corporate plan will examine how rural bus services can be supported and we are talking to bus companies about putting up cash to support certain services.

"I think it would be ambitious to try to save all three services but one would be a start.

"What people have to remember is that they keep these services viable by using them."

Cholsey Parish Council chairman Mark Gray said his council was considering providing a subsidy for a minibus to take passengers from Moulsford to Wallingford on Monday and Friday.

He added: "We need to make sure there would be enough people using the service."