Busting for a service

Countryside Column for 26 September

Cut the Surveys not the buses!

Are you one of the 22%?

Or, put another way, the one in five people round here that doesn’t have access to a car?

If you are, you may well have noticed that bus services are under threat as councils seek deeper and deeper cuts.

In East Sussex they are planning to slash 75% of their spending on buses.

This would include severe reductions in the frequency of services and abolishing altogether the Sunday route from Tunbridge Wells to Hastings and, more relevant to my family, Hawkhurst to Hastings.  This they justify by saying: “Many people have a choice of transport options - including car, motorbike/moped, taxi or train as well as more active modes such as cycling and walking.”

That may be true.  MANY people might. But as discussed the one in five carless don’t, and I hardly think walking or taking a taxi over those distances is much of an option.

But then as as the Council says: “Almost 100,000 residents of East Sussex live in villages or more rural areas, and almost 60,000 of these currently have no access by bus to a key centre at off peak times.”

So that’s OK then!  But they follow this up with the utterly astounding conclusion that:  “It could not reasonably be said that there was a strong ‘need’ for a bus service in these villages and hamlets”.  So, a service doesn’t exist and you conclude that there is no strong need for it!  Quite extraordinary.

Anyway, surely we should be promoting public transport and dissuading cars from clogging up the roads and polluting the atmosphere?  And if that means publically financing it from taxes, so be it.

But actually a large part of my concern is reserved for the last page of East Sussex County Council’s consultation survey.  Having asked me for my views on the cuts they then seek a raft of personal details. For example:  “Do you identify as a transgender or trans person?  Are you: “Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Other?”   Sorry, but what possible relevance could this have to my views on bus services?  And it gets worse: “Have you been pregnant in the past year? (No, actually.)  Are you married or in a civil partnership? Are you Bi/Bisexual? (is there a difference?) Gay woman/Lesbian?

Come on. This is utterly intrusive and utterly irrelevant. Slash the questionnaires and restore our bus services.