A COUNCIL leader has backed plans to cut bus services in the district because they do not meet demand.

Braintree Council leader Graham Butland said Essex County Council’s decision to replace routes with on-call minibuses and pull out of subsidised routes was necessary.

County Hall decided on Friday to replace 15 bus routes in the district with Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), while axeing 26 in the rest of the county.

Mr Butland said: “If there was a genuine demand, these services would stand on their own two feet. As we already know, money is tight. These are the difficult decisions local politicians are being asked to make.”

Bosses at Stansted Airport have called for the 133 service between Braintree and the airport to be spared the cuts.

The service will be reduced to one every two hours on a Sunday, leading to concerns that workers living in Braintree will face disruption.

Steve Mills, Stansted Airport’s public transport manager, said: “As a rapidly growing airport, we believe the previous timetable should be maintained and even enhanced to accommodate the increasing number of workers predicted to work at Stansted over the coming years.”

However, Mr Butland said workers could get around the problem by asking their employers to be more flexible.

He said: “One way of doing it is to get the employer to adjust the working day.

“You leave an hour earlier and you come home an hour earlier. That’s one thing that people could do.”