Cuts to bus subsidies in Leicester mean several evening and weekend services, and a number of school buses, are facing the axe.

The city council's planned reductions, the implications for users and the cost savings of the £565,500 package of cuts are detailed in the Leicester Mercury today.

The reduction in subsidies mean unprofitable routes which are propped up by council cash could cease.

Cuts to school and college bus services are likely to be made at the end of the this year's academic year in July.

Cuts to regular services could be made as early as next month.

One commuter service is facing being axed entirely.

Eight weekday evening services could also be lost, along with four Sunday services and a Saturday service.

School buses to Judgemeadow Community College and Longslade Community College will be pulled under the plans, along with buses serving English Martyr's, St Patrick's, Holy Cross and St Joseph's Catholic schools.

Miroslaw Olszewski, the headteacher at St Patrick's, in Harrison Road, Belgrave, said: "To take this service away may put parents in a position that would take away parent choice, especially if they wish to send their child to a faith school."

The affected school services are not services the council has to provide by law, but services it has chosen to lay on because there is no comparable general bus service or because the existing buses cannot cope with the number of passengers which want to use them.

Remaining school services will see ticket prices rise from 65 pence to £1 per trip.

The private bus operators behind the threatened routes could not tell the Mercury yesterday whether the services could continue without subsidies.

A city council spokesman said: "The budget pressures mean we are withdrawing funding from these services. "We're also withdrawing funding from a small number of other services where there are alternatives for passengers."

READ: "It's terrible, I've no other way home."