A council has announced it will "continue to explore" options for a bus service just days after reports that some of its services will be stopped.

Dorset County Council (DCC) has announced that discussions are continuing about the No 40 supplied by First buses to provide a suitable service for residents in west Dorset.

The move by First to stop some services was condemned by residents and politicians who learnt this week that the new timetable for the No 40 bus does not include Bridport Hospital, Netherbury, Gerrards Green in Beaminster or Broadwindsor.

In a statement, a DCC spokesman said: "We will continue to gather the information that allows us to make informed decisions.

"Dorset County Council have explored and our travel team continue to explore the options."

Cllr Daryl Turner, the council’s Cabinet member for built and rural environment said: “We need to balance the local needs of residents with the realities of the numbers of people using these services.

“The county council’s policy to remove bus subsidies means that a more flexible and community driven solution is needed, DCC have had excellent success working with communities using our toolkit”

The toolkit can be found at www.dorsetforyou.com/communitytransport.  

DCC says that following the release of First’s new timetable recently a number of issues have been highlighted:

A number of people in Broadwindsor, Gerrards Green and Netherbury will not be serviced by the new timetable and a collectively agreed community transport solution will be investigated to address this concern. DCC says it will be working with the communities to help them find solutions.

Students to Yeovil College and Sir John Colfox School are serviced by the current bus however the timings "aren’t ideal". From Monday the council will operate a 7.30am service from Bridport to Yeovil College. This is not a public service and there will be no fares as we are providing a service for the college which will contribute towards it to form a community college service.

Another issue that has been raised is the requirement for residents to attend Bridport hospital. Further discussions with the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group will look at support for this, according to the council.

Over the next three months the council says it will continue to work with communities, companies providing community transport and the schools and colleges to "iron out" these issues.