Eighteen bus services in Bristol including three used by Yate and Chipping Sodbury residents are set to be axed from October.

The long-feared announcement of which buses will be cut is expected officially next week following a major network review over the summer, but the metro mayor has now named the 11 commercial and seven subsidised routes which he says will be scrapped.

Mayor Dan Norris, who heads the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), which is in charge of the region’s strategic transport, says they “threw the kitchen sink at it but ultimately we need more bus drivers”.

The commercial services proposed to be cut are:

Y3 Yate to Bristol

Y4 Yate to Bristol

Y5 Chipping Sodbury to Bristol.

5 Downend to Bristol

22 University of Bath to Twerton

41 Lawrence Hill to Bristol, No 42 Odd Down park and ride to Bath’s Royal United Hospital

72/72A Temple Meads to UWE Frenchay

171/172 Paulton to Bath

X2 Bristol to Yatton

X5 (in part) Bristol to Weston via Portishead,

Mr Norris says there will be a new No 47 covering Yate, Bristol and Downend and a new 379 serving Paulton, Bath, Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Bristol.

The cuts, which are largely the result of a national bus driver shortage, come into force from October 9.

A First Bus spokesperson said it could not confirm the services being cancelled yet because a statutory four-week consultation period on the proposals ends this week, followed by the submission of final timetables to the Traffic Commissioner by this weekend.

.The Labour metro mayor said: “These cuts will be disheartening and worrying for local people.

“The problem of too few drivers to staff our region’s vital bus services has gone off the Richter Scale.

“We are also living in unprecedented times with annual inflation in the bus industry letting rip at over 40 per cent.

“These two major challenges have come together to create the perfect storm to see commercial bus providers up and down the land cutting back on the services they provide.

“Even where financial support has been made available by the West of England Combined Authority or the Government to keep local buses going, operators are still unwilling to run these services as they simply don’t have the drivers to operate them.  

“These cuts will cause real difficulty for many local people and communities right across our region.”

He said he hoped for better news soon on fares and an improved timetable when government funding from the Bus Service Improvement Plan kicked in next April.

“South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member for transport Conservative Cllr Steve Reade said: “It is frustrating yet again to see the Weca mayor refusing to fight for vital bus services and again rolling over and ridding our communities of public transport.

“It is very much becoming the hallmark of his term in office.

“Until now, his insistence on scrapping buses left, right and centre has been exclusively down to a perceived lack of funding despite the millions of pounds in new funding for buses that Weca continues to receive from government.

“Now he can no longer hide behind that excuse.”

Cllr Reade said Mr Norris’s recent Big Choices on Buses public meetings were “nothing more than a publicity stunt with no involvement from Weca transport officers”.