Addressing councillors on the general strategy for Angus, the plans to close the Forfar depot and planned revisions to the local bus service, Doug Fleming, managing director of Stagecoach East Scotland explained that surveys revealed it would cost close to £400,000 to bring the Prior Road depot up to standard.

Mr Fleming was responding to Councillor Glennis Middleton's argument that the people of Forfar, Kirriemuir and Letham see the closure as another erosion of services.

The Forfar councillor said that the strength of feeling locally was such that a petition against the closure had been signed by over 600 people.

She argued that maintaining a depot in the area would encourage people to use the local services.

But Mr Fleming said that it would take in the region of £387,000 to revamp the Forfar depot and that would be money that could not be spent on vehicles.

He said he understood that there were 600 people who had expressed their unhappiness at the loss of the Forfar depot but felt sure these people would prefer to have a continuation of a bus service.

He explained that before Stagecoach Strathtay had acquired new premises in Smeaton Road, Dundee, the company had looked at various other alternatives in the Forfar area, but could not find a site that was suitable.

Mr Fleming went on to tell the committee that, of the 25 staff affected by the decision to axe the Prior Road depot, only nine came from the immediate Forfar area, and, following discussions, all had agreed to relocation packages.

With regard to the affect the withdrawal of the Forfar depot will have on the bigger picture of service provision, Mr Fleming said that, in the past two years, only one ticket had been sold at the Forfar depot.

Going on to discuss the revision of bus service provision in the area, which is due to come into effect on August 18, Mr Fleming hit back at cross-party condemnation that the company was putting profit before quality of service and riding roughshod over customers, particularly in rural areas.

He insisted that there had been no choice but to revise services to maintain economic viability and keep fares to a minimum.

With the revised timetables due to come into effect in the middle of next month (August 18), council officials are still combing though the fine detail to find out if the council can secure replacement local bus service provision in order to maintain services for the public.

"The fine detail of the service changes are still being reviewed by the council's transport team," explained Mr Eric Lowson, director of infrastructure services, in a report to full council.

"Should there be any area of unmet demand identified which Strathtay Stagecoach confirms that they do not intend to meet, then tenders will be sought in order to maintain service provision."

Prior to August 18, the council's transport team will prepare revised bus timetables and roadside publicity in order to inform the public of service changes, with copies of the timetables also going to local councillors and community councils whose areas are affected by service changes.

Glossing through the proposed changes, the Montrose area appears to be the worst hit.

More locally, the plans for the Forfar area will see Service 20B (Easterbank-Forfar-Dundee) curtailed at Forfar's East High Street, with some journeys to Easterbank replaced by the re-routing of some Service 27 journeys via Arbroath Road and Restenneth Drive.

In the Kirriemuir area, the plans are for the Service 20 (Kirriemuir-Forfar-Dundee) to run via Southmuir and Northmuir in a clockwise direction only, as opposed to running in both directions as at present.

The Service 27 (Kirriemuir-Forfar-Arbroath) will run to Northmuir and Southmuir in an anti-clockwise direction only.

Minor timetable changes are planned to some peak-time journeys on Service 21/21A (Forfar-Brechin-Stracathro Hospital/Edzell) to improve reliability and accommodate changes to other contracted local bus services.

Commenting on the planned local bus service revisions overall, Councillor David May, convener of Angus Council's infrastructure services committee, said: "These are real cuts in what the Angus passengers are being offered.

"There are no doubts that, right across Angus, the service is poorer than it was and nothing I have heard today (at the full council meeting) changes my mind on that.

"At a time when Stagecoach has just announced increases in its revenue and its profits in Angus we are having our services cut."

Councillor May said he will be writing to North Tayside MSP John Swinney and Stagecoach's Brian Souter in a bid to reverse the proposed cuts.