Labour has launched a new petition calling for the county council’s proposed bus cuts to be stopped – but Watford’s MP and Mayor say they are now “about comfortable” with the revised plans.

Conservative-run Hertfordshire County Council has proposed to save an estimated £1.5m by withdrawing funding from some of the bus services it supports.

The plans include withdrawing cash from routes that operate after 7.30pm and axing subsidised Sunday services that would run after 7.30pm, unless they directly serve a hospital.

Labour has launched a fresh petition this week calling for the controversial plans to be dropped in their entirety.

The Lib Dems submitted a petition to the council in October, which was signed by almost 5,000 people.

Labour's petition, signed by 12 people at the time of writing, states: “...The bus cuts will have a devastating effect on residents across the county, who rely on a publicly funded bus service to get to work, visit relatives, visit hospital and take part in Leisure activities.

“The Coalition Government inspired cuts should be rejected to provide a properly funded service to help combat congestion.”

The plans are currently out to a second public consultation. In the original survey, just 30 of the 4,548 responses supported the cuts.

Herts Labour Group Leader, Cllr Leon Reefe, said: “If the Tories keep ignoring the wishes of residents and bus users, and waste time and money refusing to accept the obvious, we will continue to campaign against damaging cuts that affect the quality of people's lives.”

But at an election hustings event held at the Watford Community Library on Friday, both MP Richard Harrington and Mayor Dorothy Thornhill said they were "about comfortable" with the revamped proposals after lobbying for changes.

Mrs Thornhill said: “We have been fighting for months and we have got some concessions from the county council, so the proposals are better than they were.

"Our job is to now fight for the routes that matter, such as to hospitals and the eight and ten services. Richard and I have both been fighting the county council for that and I am now about comfortable with the proposals.

“Watford’s buses are not going to be hit that hard if they go for the right option but we have to commit to putting public transport higher up the agenda and we all need to change our attitudes to public transport.”

Mr Harrington agreed and said some of the services in Hertfordshire were so under used that it would be cheaper to provide a chauffeur-driven limousine for service users than lay on a full-time bus route.

For more information about the consultation, which closes on April 10, click here.