A threatened village bus service has been saved after Stagecoach and County Hall bosses struck a last ditch deal to share the route.

The 12/12A service, which is the only public transport link between Longton, New Longton and Preston city centre, will keep on running thanks to an agreement between the bus company and Lancashire County Council.

The service had looked doomed to close at the end of this month after Longton Parish Council withdrew a £50,000-a-year subsidy to keep the inter-village buses on the road. But now Stagecoach has announced they will take it on from Monday April 3 with some financial support from LCC.

Village bus service will end in March unless new funding can be found - this is ...

The service was due to stop at the end of this month.

In a statement the company said: "Stagecoach is pleased to welcome Route 12 customers into our family from Monday April 3. We will be operating Route 12, Monday to Saturday along the route of Preston-Lower Penwortham-Whitestake-New Longton-Longton, on an hourly basis.

"The route was previously subsidised by Longton Parish Council, but cost increases have meant this is no longer viable. We will be operating the route commercially Monday to Friday and encourage residents to make use of this service. Route 12 will also operate on a Saturday with funding support from Lancashire County Council."

Coun Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for highways and transport at County Hall, said: "New Longton is a sizeable community and I'm pleased that a new operator has come forward to run Service 12."I am also pleased to be supporting the service to run on Saturdays, and I'd urge people to use the bus as often as they can to ensure it becomes more sustainable in the longer term."