AN ANGUISHED Worcester pensioner says he has been "cut off" from society by cuts to bus services.

Peter Carey, an 85-year-old artist who suffers from arthritis, used to catch the 34A service twice a week to get from his home in Holly Mount into the city centre for essentials like food shopping.

But the father-of-two says since the bus was axed in April, he's been left abandoned alongside scores of other pensioners.

He says bus services are now so bad in his area that his trips into town have to be done by either sharing taxis with other pensioners or walking to Astwood Road to get the inferior number 35 service.

One of the consequences has been stopping buying fresh milk, because he struggles to carry the heavy cartons the mile-long walk back to his house from the Astwood Road shelter.

Mr Carey, who has five grandchildren, has taken to painting about his dismay, creating powerful images of his fellow passengers on the old 34A who he became friends with.

The stroke victim, a former visual arts director and mural creator, says he plans to auction the colourful creations off at some point for charity as a way of making his point.

The 34A was scrapped by First Worcestershire as part of a series of controversial reductions back in the spring.

He has raised his concerns with Councillor Paul Denham, the current city mayor and county councillor, who is planning to help him auction the paintings.

Mr Carey said: "It's absolutely dire - First Bus have taken a whole swathe of buses away from Worcester but so many people needed this one.

"A lot of people have been disenfranchised, since April there are no buses in this area.

"So many people are without transport, I shared a taxi with another elderly gentleman and it cost me £7.

"My daughter gets me long life milk when she can but I've been using powdered milk in my tea, in my porridge - I go into town twice a week for shopping but I can't carry it all.

"I miss the passengers too, they were all so friendly. We do feel cut off."

The series of major changes to services saw the 31A, 31B, 31C, 147 and W22 all cut, as well as rural routes like the 561 between Worcester, Pershore and Evesham.

Worcestershire County Council has cut its funding for subsidised routes from £3 million a year to £1.6 million, and decided against a review of the spending three months ago.

At the time it insisted the onus was on bus operators to run routes on a commercial basis.

A spokesman for First said: "Most of the changes have settled down now and the network is operating better.

"The problem is that some routes were not popular enough, that is why we made the changes.

"But we are always monitoring the network, we're constantly looking at it to see if we can meet the demands of customers."