BUS protesters have pleaded with councillors not to slash the subsidies for services they say are vital to fending off social isolation for many in the city.

Campaigners gathered outside a meeting at the city council's West Offices on Wednesday night and spoke to councillors at the start of the debate.

In February, the city council budget included plans to "rationalise" the financial support the council gives evening and weekend services, and to withdraw support completely from the orbital service 20 which circles the city from Acomb to Monks Cross to the university in Heslington.

Over the past two months the council has run a consultation on where exactly the cuts would fall, and on Wednesday a "call-in" meeting gave cross-party councillors chance to debate the plans before a final decision is made by transport boss Cllr Ian Gillies.

Campaigner Ron Healey, part of the York Bus Forum, said bus users had been poorly served by bad timing on the consultation, while Rawcliffe parish councillor Derek Paterson said his parish council - which already knows the transport problems faced in villages and tries to combat them - was given no opportunity to respond to the proposals.

Toby Hart, a Clifton resident who until recently worked in the council's transport department, warned that cutting evening and weekend services would harm social and economic inclusion, making it harder for people to get to work, and would hit visitors who stay in B&Bs and caravan parks outside the city centre.

Pleas were also made for things like rural taxi-buses to make sure outlying villages are not cut off altogether.

Cllr Gillies said cutting the services gave him no pleasure, but the financial reality the council was in meant money had to be found from somewhere.

He added: "The council does not run bus services, the operators do, and they run for the benefit of shareholders. They have to make a profit, the council just subsidises the services that are not profitable."

If enough people used the bus network providers would run the services commercially without needing to rely on council subsidies, he said.

The committee ended with seven recommendations for Cllr Gillies, urging him to make sure all alternatives are explored for other funding and the full impact on the community is taken into account, and asking him to look at cutting the frequency of some services rather than axing them altogether.