ANGRY civic leaders are demanding that a bus company reinstates an evening service that took passengers to hospital for visiting time.

Town councillors in Todmorden are to protest to Metro bus company over its axing of the service taking people to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax.

Councillor Patricia Dale has described the reduction in service as "outrageous," adding that the bus service would be badly missed by the people who relied on the bus to take them to visit their relatives.

She said: "People have come to rely on this service and just killing it off is not fair and shows a lack of thought. We should be protesting to them as quickly as possible and urging them to have a change of mind."

The weekday service, the number 588, runs from Todmorden to Calderdale Royal Hospital and is run by Metro through the Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. The bus leaves Todmorden at 6.15pm and returns at 8pm. The service is due to end on April 25.

Chairman of Todmorden development committee, Councillor Dorothy Jordan, said it was a service that was greatly needed. She said: "If they say that not many people use the special bus, surely they can provide a minibus to cover both journeys. They are meant to be running a service after all, and that service will be subsidised."

A Metro spokesman said: "With recent surveys showing as few as four people making Monday to Friday journeys, Metro could not continue to support it from public funds."

He confirmed that Metro had decided not to apply for more funding for the link because too few people used it and said available funding must be put to the best possible use.