D-Day for 38 bus services as council presses ahead with cuts
Hundreds of bus-users will be left stranded come October when KCC’s decision to slash subsidies comes into effect.
The cabinet member for transport, Cllr David Brazier (Con), admitted his decision to withdraw funding from 38 non-commercial services across the county would “leave people in difficulty, increase the use of cars and worsen air quality”, but he said there was no alternative.
Reduced Government funding, combined with the exponentially increasing cost of the services that KCC is legally compelled to provide, had led to the council making a budget decision in February to shave £2.2m from the £6m it spends annually on voluntarily supporting services that bus companies would not otherwise run.
Among those to end are a number in Maidstone: the No5 Arriva evening service between Maidstone and Sandhurst; the Nu Venture No 13 Saturday service between Hollingbourne and Maidstone; the Autocar No 24 Tuesday service between Sandhurst and Maidstone; and the Nu Venture No 88 Monday to Friday commuter service between Maidstone and Kings Hill among them.
The whole Nu-Venture 59 bus, serving Grafty Green, Ulcombe and Chart Sutton, will end.
The decision came despite a protest outside County Hall by parents worried about how their children would get to school in future.
Graham Francis from Plaxtol, who was on the picket, said: “We want the council to see sense. These buses are essential.
“These are services – they shouldn’t be looked at as commercial operations.
“They connect rural communities to town and take children to school.
“Rural communities need to be connected. Elderly people in particular need buses to get out, get their shopping and get access to medical care.”
Maidstone borough council’s sole Green party member was in agreement. Cllr Stuart Jeffrey said: “We are facing a number of crises at the moment – the cost of living crisis, the fuel crisis and the climate crisis.
“This is completely the wrong time to cut bus services which will worsen all three. In fact its almost criminal to do so.
“These buses were subsidised for a reason – because they are vital to those that use them.”
Opposition councillors made a number of proposals at the cabinet committee meeting attempting to either delay the cuts or have certain services excluded from the list of cuts. All failed.
Only one service – the Go Coach S4 – was saved and that was because KCC had made a mistake in the public consultation it had held, describing the bus as running from Ide Hill to Edenbridge, when in fact it runs from Shipbourne to Sevenoaks.
But Cllr Brazier warned: “We may hold a further public consultation on that at a later date.”
Opposition councillors questioned whether the cuts even made financial sense.
KCC is under a legal obligation to pay for transport for supported children to reach school. Without a functioning bus service, it will be obliged to pay for a taxi or minibus to pick up those qualifying children. KCC had estimated this would add £150,000 to the education budget, but it was basing its estimate on 2019 passenger figures.
County councillor for Maidstone North East, Ian Chittenden (Lib Dem), who voted against the cuts, questioned whether that was right. He said: “That’s a total under-estimation. It’s likely far more parents on low incomes will now be obliged to apply and KCC has also taken no account of the increased housing since then.”
Cllr Chittenden said he was particularly concerned at the loss of the Detling Shopper service. He said: “This is going to cut Detling off completely.”
The only good news for bus passengers was that KCC excluded the Kent Karrier Service from the list of cuts.