Axing an open-top summer bus service on Exmoor will bring a vital winter service on the same route crashing to a halt as well.

This the warning from bus operators after Somerset County Council proposed withdrawing funding for the Quantock Motor Services summer service from Minehead to Lynmouth, via Porlock.

Steve Morris, managing director of the bus company said: “We use the funding we get from the 300 summer service to keep the 39 winter service going. If the funding for the summer service is withdrawn, the winter service is under threat as well.

“The total money we would get from both would not be enough to run either.”

Somerset County Council is consulting on a series of proposals to cut another £1.5 million from its bus subsidy budget. The public has until January 12 to comment.

Regular travellers who use the 300 and 39 services to get to work and the many tourism businesses in the area are devastated by the threat to the services and businessman Mark Sanders, co-owner of the Culbone Inn, has launched a petition to save them.

Four of his nine staff at the highest pub on Exmoor use the buses to get to the remote inn, four miles from Porlock and eight miles from Lynmouth.

He said: “The 300 is an iconic service, a valuable and vital link. Tourists love this picturesque route, many residents rely upon it and traders benefit from it. It is a unique and beneficial tourist attraction to the area.

“We are planning to start a cookery school, and we are creating a development programme for our employees to become their own pub managers in two years, and are looking to appoint two more managers including a training manager.

“We have had 70 replies but some applicants don’t drive. The bus service is vital to our business plan, it brings our team to work and diners to our door.”

Denise Sage, of Porlock Visitor Centre, said: “People are really at panic stations over this. The service is a really vital lifeline for locals and visitors. If it goes it will affect everyone.”

One problem for the operator is that, while the summer service is popular with tourists, many use bus passes, drastically reducing income.

Mr Morris is also concerned that he bought a brand new bus just a year ago after winning a seven-year contract and is questioning the legality of ending the contract.

The council’s proposals can be seen and commented on at the Somerset County Council website.

The petition can be signed at the Culbone Inn.