A THREATENED bus service has been reprieved after elderly people claimed they would be left prisoners in their own homes.

The Blackburn Transport Service to the Warrenside Close area was threatened with the axe when the company said not enough people were using it to keep it on the road.

But when the announcement was made, several elderly people got in touch with the council to say they would be left stranded without it.

Town hall transport chiefs have now come up with the cash to ensure the service will remain.

Highways and transport committee chairman Coun Ashley Whalley said: "Blackburn Transport had said the service was no longer viable because few people were using it.

"But that would have left some people living in the area without a bus link to town.

"We have been able to find some funding to keep the service running, by moving it from a service area which is growing in use to this particular service.

"I hope that more people living in the Warrenside Close area will start to use the bus to ensure its future viability, but in the meantime we are pleased to have been able to step in to save this valuable service and protect the route for the people for whom buses are their only form of transport."

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