MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has called for the fullest possible show of public support for a campaign to save a ‘vital’ bus route.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the No 25 service which ran along the Somerset-Devon border from Taunton to Dulverton provided an ‘indispensable lifeline’ between the county town and the heart of Exmoor.

The service connects Milverton, Wiveliscombe, and Bampton along its route but is under threat of being withdrawn through lack of funding.

People are being offered free rides on the service on Tuesday of next week (December 19) to help the operators and local authorities gauge the level of support for retaining the route, but Mr Liddell-Grainger said public involvement should not be limited to a one-day token demonstration.

Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents West Somerset and will be the Conservative General Election candidate in the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency taking in Wiveliscombe and much of the countryside to the north and west of Wellington as well as the Culm Valley, wants residents to ‘battle for their bus’.

He said: “People should be writing to the authorities to stress what a vital service this is and how several rural communities would be left totally isolated were it to cease running.

“I am afraid the Government rarely appreciates how the countryside works when it comes to managing transport spending.

“The rural bus network has been progressively butchered over the last 40 years but the routes that are left are the really important strategic ones which we cannot afford to lose.

“The cost of running a car is rising and people are being urged to reduce carbon emissions and this is no time to withdraw the only alternative form of transport they have.

“I am certain more intelligent timetabling so that bus provision is matched to need could take out a lot of the operating costs.

“But simply announcing a service is being taken away for lack of support is completely unacceptable.”