COUNCIL leaders have called for urgent talks with Transport Minister Keith Brown after it emerged that up to 200 jobs are under threat as a major bus company announced swingeing service cuts.

First Scotland East is to end a number of services in East Lothian and said there would be "full withdrawal" in Midlothian.

The firm cited concerns over grant funding, an issue revealed in The Herald last week.

The company also said it had started the collective consultation process with trade unions on redundancies at its Dalkeith and Musselburgh bus depots, which includes the possible closure of the Dalkeith depot.

A total of 20 services were withdrawn and eight amended, leaving only nine unchanged.

Services will be affected from the start of June and those to go will include numbers 86, 44, 129, 141 and 625.

The firm said the decision came after a number of years of poor trading "which can no longer be borne by the business given the current challenging economic climate, high fuel prices and cuts in external funding".

Paul Thomas, managing director of First Scotland East – which is owned by FirstGroup, the Aberdeen-based transport operator – said: "We appreciate this will be distressing news for many of our staff and also unwelcome news for customers.

"However, we have for some time been running a number of services in the East and Midlothian regions at a loss."

But Pat Rafferty, of the Unite union, said: "We are not prepared to accept the scale of the losses and will do whatever we can to protect those jobs and those services."

Paul McLennan, leader of East Lothian Council, said the council would " assess the situation and meet with all interested parties to plan for the future provision of services".

He added: "In particular, I will be seeking urgent meetings with both Paul Thomas and Transport Minister Keith Brown. Meanwhile, I can assure parents that school buses will continue to operate on normal timetables until the summer break."

Derek Milligan, leader of Midlothian Council, said the cuts would "leave many of our communities with either a vastly reduced bus service or, in some instances, no public transport at all".

He added: "Thousands of our residents rely on public transport to get to and from work, to the shops, to hospitals and generally out and about. At a time when we are all being encouraged to use public transport more, this will come as a devastating blow."

The Herald revealed last week that bus companies had warned fares will be pushed even higher this year as the Scottish Government's concessionary travel scheme for the over-60s and disabled people runs out of cash.

Operators issued the warning after complaining about a failure to reimburse them for millions of passenger journeys, as demand for free travel exceeded the funding available.

Last month, First Group was given the go ahead to make cuts to bus services in Edinburgh after complaining to the UK competition watchdog it has been affected by extended tram works in the capital.

It was also announced at the same time that one in five bus services in Glasgow is at risk of being axed if cuts to grants go ahead.

First East Scotland employs more than 1200 staff and operates 420 buses at nine depots, with its regional base in Falkirk.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "This is obviously disappointing news.

"First Group's preferred option remains identifying a bidder for the routes, but market conditions make that difficult.

"The Transport Minister will be talking to First Group and Lothian Buses about the provision of services across the withdrawn routes."