Wightbus also provided school buses, and transported disabled adults to various day care centres on behalf of the council's social services department.

[1] Wightbus was axed by the new unitary Isle of Wight Council in February 2011, with the last services operating on 2 September 2011.

Under a new "Community Bus Partnership", Southern Vectis agreed to take on a number of routes previously operated by Wightbus to rural areas of the island in co-ordination with the Isle of Wight Council and the town and parish councils which the services run in.

The name 'Wightbus' was the trading name of the Isle of Wight Council's own bus fleet, to which it was known for the last 14 years of its operations.

[citation needed] In December 2010, it was announced that the Isle of Wight Council planned to axe all Wightbus services from 31 August 2011 in a bid to save around £175,000 due to funding cuts caused by central government to tackle the national deficit.

This used three spare buses – not working due to Cowes Week being in the school Summer holidays – to maintain a five-minute frequency.

[7] However, the lack of a sponsor for the 2009 event and the Isle of Wight Council no longer receiving income from the Northwood House car park because it doesn't operate it, caused the council to instead reach agreement with Southern Vectis to run the service with a £1 per journey fare.

Since the closure of Wightbus in September 2011, all routes have passed to Southern Vectis who are running in a community partnership with the Isle of Wight Council and town and parish councils.Wightbus also operated several 'dial-a-bus' services enabling passengers to book a service in advance and were aimed at disabled people that may not otherwise have been able to leave the house.

However this was later increased to £1 per journey, and later £1.20 after the unprecedented success of the scheme lead to the Isle of Wight Council being unable to continue the same level of support.

In July 2010 after cuts in funding from central government to local authorities nationwide, it was recommended that the scheme should be axed.