Kent County Council intends to cut £2.2 million pounds which subsidise socially necessary bus services which are not otherwise profitable to run. Operators have suggested that they intend to cut 20 routes although 54 services are believed to be at risk. In Tonbridge and Malling these include services from Leybourne to Borough Green, Wrotham to Tonbridge, Kings Hill to West Malling and Maidstone, Dunton Green to Hugh Christie School, Addington to Maidstone and East Peckham to Pembury, as well as connecting services which residents may use to visit towns like Tenterden.
Closure of these routes will mean significant hardship for residents of these villages and unfortunately reflects the “driving by default” attitude so common amongst many Kent County Councillors, especially Tory ones. We urge all Labour Party members, supporters and voters in the affected community to formally put their views to the County Council by clicking on the link here.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh warned earlier this month of a looming bus crisis and has pointed out that the fund intended to improve and transform services for the longer-term has been “substantially reduced”. Kent Labour have opposed these cuts, tabling a alternative budget that was sadly voted down.
Labour County Councillor Barry Lewis, Shadow Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport has said , “These draconian cuts to bus services will imprison many people that rely on these bus services including to shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Ironically, we call on the Conservative Government to step in and protect the people of Kent from these cuts by their Conservative colleagues at County Hall and fully fund local government for the services it delivers and deliver on their National Bus Strategy – Bus Back Better which was published last year and not cutting bus services like Conservative Led KCC
Julian Wilson, Chair of Tonbridge and Malling CLP, also adds that: “The loss of vital bus services in these communities is a further blow to residents who have often seen service after service lost to Tory austerity. It is wholly at odds with the Conservative Party rhetoric on the importance of decarbonisation and leaves those who do not drive, whether by choice, for medical reasons or because they cannot afford to do so, locked out of access to jobs, education, healthcare and leisure opportunities.
Like many people of my generation, awareness of the seriousness of climate change and a belief in social justice meant that I never wished to drive, though I recognise that for many other people it is a necessity due to where they live or work. I have sometimes been at the receiving end of some odd comments as a result. I think that it is further evidence that the Conservatives are growing ever more out of touch with people in our county”.
Labour Party policy nationally and in Kent is to regulate bus services, giving people high quality transport based on social need, as already happens in Labour-controlled London, Manchester and elsewhere, upgrade fleets with new electric vehicles, provide free bus passes to students and others with social need for them.