NEARLY a third of leisure bus seats into the Yorkshire Dales will be lost this year, says an organisation which represents public transport passengers.

The Yorkshire Dales public transport users' group is dismayed at cuts in leisure bus services for hundreds of visitors from surrounding towns and cities this summer.

While members welcomed a new bus link on summer Sundays from Darlington and Richmond to Hawes, via Swaledale, this would operate for just three months.

However, the summer Sunday bus from Bradford and Leeds to Leyburn, Swaledale and Hawes is withdrawn, while weekend services from West Yorkshire to Aysgarth and Hawes via Wharfedale are cut back, with the Saturday service withdrawn and a reduced Sunday service.

Dalesbus services operate on summer weekends and the group says these are especially valued by elderly people who can no longer drive, and by non-car owners.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and North Yorkshire County Council reviewed the contracts for the services but the funding needed to continue the full network was not made available, in spite of bumper numbers of visitors expected in the national park's 50th anniversary year.

Howard Handley, users' group chairman, said: "The national park's anniversary this year has commendably incorporated a theme of reaching out to the park's surrounding communities.

"People are rightly being encouraged to use public transport to access the Dales, but it is clear that little thought has been given as to how they might actually be able to do so. The level of service into the national park will be significantly less this year than last from the major conurbations of West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and the city of York."

The group estimates that about 30pc fewer seats will be available on leisure bus services into the Dales this year.

"These cuts just don't make sense; with all that is happening in the national park this year I would have expected to see an increase in leisure buses to the area, not a reduction," said Mr Handley.

The group encouraged anyone adversely affected by the cuts to make their views known and to press for a last minute change of heart by the authorities.

A reduction in Countryside Agency funding was blamed for the cuts in bus services.

A spokesman for the national park authority said it supported the county council in striving to provide bus services.

"The national park authority has actually increased its direct contribution to bus services in 2004-5 by 30 per cent in an effort to compensate for a reduction in Countryside Agency funding," he said.

"The authority is pleased the Yorkshire Dales public transport users' group recognises the efforts made to develop the 50th anniversary celebrations with access to the Dales by public transport in mind, and appreciates the group's concerns about the level of service provision.

"However, it has to be acknowledged that service provision has to be achieved by balancing that provision against the available resources.