A Transport for London senior representative has pleaded to Hertfordshire County Council not to go through with the proposed bus cuts.

Peter Bradley, head of consultation at Transport for London (TfL), wrote a letter to the county council asking them to reconsider the ‘complete withdrawal of funding’ after the council announced that they are not considering renewing their three-year contract with TfL.

TfL currently share the services with the authority and the county council has provided an annual subsidy of £390,000 to support five bus routes linking a small number of southern Hertfordshire destinations with Greater London.

For the five services subsidised by Hertfordshire County Council, TfL has an annual budget of £11.3m with the council’s subsidy amounting to just four per cent of their total costs.

In Watford, services 142, Watford Junction to Brent Cross, and 258, Watford Junction to South Harrow, are under threat if the council cut their funding for the routes as planned in its proposed budget for 2016.

Mr Bradley revealed that the loss of funding means that the Department for Transport (DfT) general grant will also be reduced over the next three years until it is eliminated in 2019.

Derrick Ashley, Hertfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport has written a letter into this week’s Watford Observer explaining his side of the ongoing bus cuts debate.