Eastry News

Bus Funding Reduction

Bus Funding Reduction

We are proposing to make savings by reducing the money we spend on providing some bus services that private bus companies cannot afford to run, and which are no longer cost effective. We are carrying out this consultation to listen to your feedback.

KCC currently spends about £6m per year to contract services which are not profitable for bus companies but which the Council thinks are important. These are often the services running in more rural areas, in the evenings and at weekends and includes our Kent Karrier (Dial-a-Ride) services.

We have worked hard to protect this funding, but the financial pressures placed on KCC’s budget mean that the Council faces an intensely challenging period ahead, where tough decisions will need to be taken. The impact of this does unfortunately mean that the Council is having to consider savings across a whole range of services.

To meet the financial challenge being posed by this year’s budget, KCC’s Public Transport team has been asked to reduce planned spending on this funding by £2.2m. To achieve this reduction, we would need to end 48 contracts with a total value of £3m which would affect around 55 supported bus services from Summer 2022.

The consultation document provides more information and details on the proposed changes to services. Timetables for the journeys that are affected, and a full list of all subsidised services are also available from the Consultation documents section on this page.

Have your say

Before any decisions are made, we want to hear your views on:

  • how the proposed bus service withdrawals could impact you
  • the assumptions we have made in the draft Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA)
  • any additional information that you think we need to consider about our approach and the proposals identified in the consultation document.

 

 

 

 

 

https://letstalk.kent.gov.uk/bus-funding-reductions