It is a disgrace that City of York Council, in a cost-cutting exercise, has decided to axe the meagre bus service along Temple Lane, Copmanthorpe, a schedule which operated for just three days a week. It stopped on Friday. Admittedly, few folk used it, but those who did were the elderly and infirm. Most of them were entirely reliant upon bus transport, and they will now be left stranded, isolated in their own homes, forced to pay substantially more from fixed incomes for essential services, or made to suffer the indignity of becoming dependent upon neighbours for help.

This service along Temple Lane was a lifeline for my elderly parents and the small group of pensioners and others who relied upon it. Without it, they will certainly experience grave difficulties in accessing shops and supermarkets, the post office and banks, and, vitally, their doctor’s surgery.

But journeys into York are also important because they enable them to meet people, and afford them the freedom and dignity of maintaining an independent lifestyle.

The Dial & Ride bus scheme has been offered as a sop, but, although an excellent service in its way, there are a number of practical difficulties associated with it. Age and infirmity mean they are now unable to tackle long-distance walks, especially in adverse weather conditions or laden with heavy bags of shopping.

All that is required to alleviate their difficulty is a little flexibility. The occasional bus, on specific days of the week, could follow its new route through Appleton Roebuck and Acaster Malbis, but then divert through Copmanthorpe to allow the Temple Lane residents the chance to travel into York and back. This would cost very little. Bishopthorpe, which would be bypassed on these runs, already enjoys an adequate service, and the loss of an occasional bus would surely not prove a hardship. Depriving elderly folk of their lifeline certainly would.

Colin Woods, Holyhead, Anglesey.

• A City of York Council spokesperson said: “We are sympathetic and have done our best to postpone this day for as long as possible.

“However, it is not economical to provide a bus service for only a handful of passengers. We reached a position where difficult decisions had to be made as we are having to spend more and more money on bus services to achieve less service coverage than there has been in the recent past.

“The rerouting of service 21 was agreed by the council’s executive in July 2008.

“We are trying to make those residents affected by the changes aware that York Wheels operates a Dial & Ride service on behalf of the council to try to meet the their travel needs of local residents.

“This is mainly for shopping trips, but also for any other city centre personal business visits.

“The Dial & Ride timetable and information on the service has been distributed to every household in the Temple Lane area.

“Concessionary pass holders are entitled to half fares on the Dial & Ride network, which provides connections with the city centre four days a week and to Monks Cross on the fifth day.”