Folkestone residents campaigning against county-wide Stagecoach bus cuts

KentOnline / KMTV

The group 'Save our Buses' want a Manchester-style scheme where bus services are publicly owned.

Transcript

00:00 Folkestone residents say for the past eight months catching a bus has been difficult to say the least.

00:06 Stagecoach axed or reduced 11 of its East Kent bus services in September,

00:11 including five in Folkestone, and one of the founders is disabled,

00:15 so getting the bus is his main mode of transport.

00:19 Well I had a surgery appointment Wednesday morning,

00:23 and I had to pay £5.80 to get a taxi to the surgery.

00:27 And as a pensioner I have no way of getting any extra income.

00:31 I can't generate extra funding.

00:33 When they ax these things, they say that they've got the passengers well at heart,

00:39 but then they really don't.

00:40 Him and co-founder Keith want bus services to be back in public ownership,

00:45 like it is in Manchester.

00:47 We need to subsidise it in some way to allow people just to have a social life,

00:52 not just a social life, to live.

00:54 We know this is a long campaign. It's not going to go change tomorrow.

00:57 We're going to keep on campaigning, and we won't stop campaigning

01:00 until we get a publicly run bus service.

01:02 For some I've spoken to in Folkestone today, they don't have a car,

01:05 or some are disabled and they can't drive,

01:08 or for some they'd simply rather get the bus because it's a little bit cheaper

01:11 and better for the environment.

01:12 So for those people, they're concerned to hear there's a reduced service

01:16 because they rely on the buses to get from A to B.

01:19 Well not everybody wants to drive in any way.

01:21 We're supposed to be lowering emissions, aren't we?

01:24 They're providing services to the cricket match.

01:27 We can't get to the hospital without having three buses now

01:30 in Kent and Canterbury Hospital. That's ridiculous.

01:32 I use my car, but I'm getting to the age now

01:36 when I really can't afford to run a car.

01:39 Sometimes you can wait for nearly half an hour before the bus turns up,

01:43 and then when it does turn up, there's two or three together.

01:47 A KCC Labour councillor says the government has cut councils' funding,

01:51 making it harder for KCC to subsidise bus services.

01:55 The government have been cutting back all of the funding

01:59 that actually comes down to Kent County.

02:02 We have to pay for this bus service and the government have stopped us.

02:07 The Department for Transport said KCC is receiving nearly £40m

02:11 to improve local bus services.

02:14 This is in addition to £1m every year since 2014.

02:18 Sagecoach said there are fewer people travelling on buses

02:21 and less often than before the pandemic.

02:24 With this and higher operational costs,

02:26 it said difficult decisions had to be taken,

02:29 but it will continue to work with KCC.

02:31 Locals in the seaside town have certainly got wheels in motion

02:35 for their campaign, but now they want to see the wheels on their buses

02:39 back in motion as they hope to see more of their bus services restored

02:43 and in the hands of the public.

02:45 Sophia Aitken for KMTV in Folkestone.

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