Kent County Council have announced a consultation where they are asking for views on withdrawing 48 bus contracts across the whole of the county. This is due to KCC budget pressures and is not related to the performance of any bus operator.
The proposals include a number of services currently operated by Chalkwell, as well as those provided by nearly all other operators across the county. If the plans go ahead several services would probably finish in the summer of 2022, and places such as Doddington, Conyer, Newnham, Borden, Bredgar and Rodmersham would be without any bus service at all. This would then make life very difficult for people in these areas who depend on buses to access education, work, healthcare, shopping and other essential amenities. There are also a number of school journeys that are facing withdrawal, such as the 332 from Stockbury, the HS7/HS8 to Tenterden and the 662/664/666 in the Teynham and Faversham area.
We must stress that at the moment this is only a consultation, however customers and residents of Kent who feel strongly should respond to the KCC survey, which can be found at kent.gov.uk/bus-funding-reductions
The more people that respond to the consultation and contact local politicians, the less chance there is of services being withdrawn.