Bus users across South Gloucestershire will be fighting to keep their services after cuts to timetables were revealed.

Operator First shocked passengers when it announced it was withdrawing the X27 between Yate and Bristol, which also serves Iron Acton and Winterbourne.

The company said it had to cut costs and offered no consultation on the axing of the X27 or other changes it will bring in for early May.

Now Liberal Democrat councillors have started an online petition calling on South Gloucestershire Council to take immediate action to safeguard bus services for the areas affected by First's cuts.

The petition also calls on First to reduce its fares and can be seen at http://ourcampaign.org.uk/southglosbuses.

Dodington councillor Paul Hulbert (Lib Dem) said: "I can foresee a time in the not too distant future when our only buses will be to Yate shopping centre, and people in this heavily built-up area will have to walk a mile or more to catch the nearest bus. We need to break this spiral of higher fares and fewer passengers."

Others have also been quick to criticise the cuts.

Matthew Riddle, prospective Conservative MP for the Thornbury and Yate constituency, said the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) announced recently it would carry out a study into local bus services.

He said: "I hope the OFT will now properly investigate our local services and challenge First Group on its woeful performance, because South Gloucestershire residents deserve better."

Northavon MP Steve Webb (Lib Dem) has also attacked the decision and Brian Allinson, South Gloucestershire's Tory transport chief, said he would be contacting First to express anger at its move.

Yate town councillor Chris Willmore (Lib Dem) said the plug had been pulled on the only bus to Bristol for nearly 10,000 Yate and Iron Acton residents.

She said many passengers would have to walk more than a mile to find a service, even during the rush hour.

Iron Acton will have one bus a day, with a two- to three-mile walk along busy main roads with no pavements to find a bus to Bristol.

Ms Willmore said: "You simply cannot cut off entire communities like this.

"These people will not be able to get to work by bus and the elderly who cannot walk a mile will be stuck completely."

"The bus company's approach is bonkers.

"They've pulled the plug on buses for commuters, or for daytime use, but these areas will have a couple of buses in the evenings and a two-hourly service on Sunday.

"Commuters aren't going to add 20 minutes to their journey by walking across town to a bus, they will simply get back in their cars."

She said the changes would see the Shire Way area in south Yate having two buses an hour to Bristol but the larger community to the north of the town having none.

One of the other changes being made affects the X42 between Chipping Sodbury and Bristol via Coalpit Heath, which will only run at peak times.

Westerleigh councillor Claire Young (Lib Dem) said: "People in Coalpit Heath have already seen their off-peak service reduced and now they face longer journey times as the express X42 buses are replaced with slower 342 ones.

"First claim these buses will take only six minutes longer to get into Bristol but these services are regularly upwards of 20 minutes late because of the large number of stops they make in the suburbs of Bristol."

With South Gloucestershire Council currently building new offices in Yate, members also want to know how staff are going to get to work if alternative buses aren't put on.

First Bristol managing director Justin Davies said: "Like other businesses we have had to reduce our costs to match a reduced income level.

"We have looked at the services we operate and reluctantly concluded there are some that we can no longer run because the income taken does not even match the operating costs.

"Our decision to no longer operate these services does not prevent an alternative operator taking them on and running them on a commercial basis."