Bus operators in the county were paid more than £5.6m by the Government in fuel duty rebates in the past year, according to new figures.

Fifteen organisations received a total of £5,630,637.52 from the Bus Operators’ Support Grant scheme, ranging from the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach to community buses in Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire.

The five largest payments made by the Department for Transport went to Stagecoach Oxfordshire (£2,417,560.13), Oxford Bus Company (£2,006,516.68), Wallingford-based Thames Travel (£508,393.61), Bicester’s Heyfordian Travel (£312,947.80) and Witney-based RH Transport (£177,816).