A Brighton bus route threatened with the axe at the end of the year has been reprieved.

Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company has stepped in to keep the busiest journeys going on route 35 between Westdene and the Open Market.

It is one of only five daytime routes funded by Brighton and Hove City Council.

It was due to be stopped, along with route 13, as a result of the council's overspending difficulties.

Bus firm managing director Roger French said: "We've had a look at the journeys carrying the most passengers on this route to find a way of keeping them running without the need for council funding.

"Now we plan to keep two return journeys in the mornings running, to continue providing a direct link from Westdene and Dyke Road to the Open Market and London Road."

The new arrangements will start from the middle of January, when the three-month notice period given by the council to end the bus route expires.

Mr French said: "It has been a topsy-turvy world of running buses in the city in recent months."

Council cuts follow similar action from East and West Sussex county councils.

Mr French said: "When the Government introduced deregulation into the bus industry 15 years ago it was envisaged that councils would step in to keep bus routes running when private bus companies could no longer run them profitably.

"Worryingly, it's now proving the opposite, with private bus companies taking on the social responsibilities meant for local authorities by stepping in to take over services the council is deserting."

He said after these changes, apart from the costs of school transport and the park-and-ride contract, Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company would receive just one per cent of its turnover from tendered council funding.

This pays for winter Sunday evening journeys, a small number of weekday evening and Sunday daytime journeys and a daytime route to Ovingdean and parts of Woodingdean.

Mr French said: "This must be one of the smallest amounts of public funding for such a comprehensive bus network anywhere in the country."

Metrobus also has a funded council contract for two daytime routes.

More than 500 people from the Westdene ward signed a petition against scrapping the service.

The campaign was started by Louise Richards, a mother of two young children who relied on the service to go shopping, and local councillor Ann Norman.

Coun Norman said it was good news that the service would continue.

She said: "I am quite pleased. They have acknowledged the concerns of residents.

"With winter coming, to have no service at all would be disastrous.

"If the services they run prove popular they could be extended again."