THEY connect rural areas and often isolated individuals with towns and cities. But some of Sussex’s bus routes could be cut as the demand for services drops. ADRIAN IMMS reports.

BUS users have only two days left to make their views known on cuts which could see routes across Sussex axed.

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is holding a consultation into cost-cutting, which may affect supported bus services to all corners of the county.

Nearly 100 bus services across Sussex face cuts as ESCC looks to save £1.79 million.

Among the areas affected include Lewes, Uckfield, Rye and Hastings.

The move could affect operators including Stagecoach, Compass Travel and Brighton and Hove Buses.

ESCC says it subsidises a number of routes which would be “economically unviable” if run privately without council subsidies.

As well as bus cuts, ESCC proposes a 30% fare hike on some routes.

The consultation closes at midnight on Sunday.

ESCC said the feedback will be analysed with final recommendations presented to its cabinet on December 16.

If the cabinet agrees with the recommendations, the draft strategy will be finalised and, depending on the cabinet decision, changes to the supported bus network would happen from the end of March next year.

Residents gathered on September 11 at Westgate Chapel in Lewes to condemn the proposed bus cuts.

Some spoke about how badly they would be affected, while health and social services representatives talked about the problems people could face.

Others were concerned about the effects on the environment and about increased car use.

Chris Smith is spearheading the Love Your Bus campaign run by the Lewes Stop The Cuts group.

As the main speaker, he told the meeting: “It seems that Government cuts to general funding, bus service operators’ grant, rural bus subsidy and kickstart are likely to make it more difficult to run the rural and suburban services threatened.

“The council has choices, and it has taken the wrong ones.”

After the meeting, he said to The Argus: “From our meeting we got a lot of new ideas, which we are still processing.

“We will use the stories people have given us to illustrate the effect of the likely cuts and will continue to publicise the cuts because lots of people are still unaware of them.

“We will use the links we made at the meeting to join forces with campaigners in other parts of the county.”

Mr Smith told The Argus there was a general feeling bus fees would cost more in knock-on costs than they would save.

He said he felt the “horse trading” between campaign groups and councillors would then go on from the end of September until the decision in December.

ESCC has said the proposed fare increases could be up to 30%, depending on individual companies.

Mr Smith said: “Fares on remaining services will face a huge hike, making them unaffordable for many. This will lead to even less use of the buses remaining.

“You can see that the council is trying to reduce bus passengers so that they can make even further cuts.”

Mr Smith also questioned why ESCC spent money on the Bexhill-Hastings link road which, he says, could help cover cuts over the next three years in response to the Government withdrawal of funding. The link road is set to cost £113 million.

Lewes MP Norman Baker, who was transport minister until October last year, has previously expressed disappointment that ESCC had spent so much on the link road and felt it could have used some of this money for its bus services.

Mr Baker said in June: “These types of cuts are not just an inconvenience but will greatly affect people’s day to day living.

“I hope people make their comments and complaints known to the council.”

ESCC said it subsidises a number of routes that are economically unviable for private companies to run.

It said 91% of current passengers on the East Sussex bus network would remain unaffected and that more than 95% would still have access to a six-day-a-week service, Monday to Saturday.

To take part in the consultation process visit the website at https://consultation.eastsussex.gov.uk and click on the featured consultation.

Proposed cuts

AMONG the proposed cuts are a clutch of services changing from hourly to two-hourly at off-peak times.

These include the 7, 24, 27, 29, 340, 341, 344 and 347 serving Hastings and the 95, 96 and 97 from Bexhill.

The 121, 123 and 129 rural services to Lewes, the 145 Newhaven and 312 Rye service are also affected.

The 125 rural service through Barcombe, Lewes and Alfriston faces a proposed reduction from every two hours to a twice-weekly service.

The 261 between East Grinstead and Uckfield and the 166 between Lewes and Haywards Heath both face the same reductions. The 151, 154, 155 and 156 dial-a-ride services for Seaford, Eastbourne, Hastings and Rye are all currently under consultation.

Seaford faces reducing its daily hourly 126 service to Eastbourne to two days a week, with its Sunday service being lost entirely.

Other Seaford services to Crowborough, Uckfield and Battle are also facing the two-day treatment.
And a whole raft of services face being axed completely.

Among them are the 20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 349 and 344 serving Hastings as well as the 229, 254, 304 and 252 leaving East Sussex to get to Tunbridge Wells.

Those hoping to travel by bus from Lewes to Tunbridge Wells on Monday to Saturday evenings could also lose their 28/29 service, run by Brighton and Hove Buses.

The routes not cut could see fare rises of up to 30%.

Brighton connection

THE proposals by ESCC mean that Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company’s 28 and 29 routes from Brighton to Tunbridge Wells through Lewes face cutbacks.

Its Monday to Saturday evening services between Lewes and Tunbridge Wells could be removed completely.

A spokesperson for the bus company told The Argus in June that passengers affected by
the proposal should respond to ESCC’s consultation.

Aside from the 28 and 29 services facing change, Brighton and Hove Buses has already had to adapt other routes.

In January, the company revealed it wanted to scrap its route serving the Hanover and Elm Grove area.
The 81, 81A, 81B and 81C services, were replaced by three services – the 18, 20 and 21 – with ten services an hour to Queen’s Park instead of five.

The move, which came into force last April, saw the introduction of circular services.

But the services were revised again on Sunday, September 14, so that the 20 route has merged into the 18 and 21 services, with all buses running more or less in a linear fashion.

The 18 and 21 are now co-ordinated to run every 15 minutes each, spaced seven and a half minutes apart.

Andrew Boag, chairman of Brighton Area Buswatch, felt the new arrangements in Brighton and Hove were working well but wasn’t anywhere near as convinced about the East Sussex proposals.

He said: “The county council claims passengers prefer fares increases to protect services but the proposed 30% fares hike is huge and is on top of the cuts.
“It will be a burden which will hurt the poorest most.
“Perhaps the only consolation is that over 80% of bus journeys in the East Sussex County Council area are made on frequent commercial services (mainly routes between coastal towns) which are not subsidised and should be unaffected.”

The west side

RESIDENTS in West Sussex have already been through a three-year money-saving programme of bus
cuts.

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) announced its third phase of cuts to bus subsidies in July 2012, saving £1.9 million.

It is now over that hurdle after addressing the changes it needed to make in spring 2013.

A cross-party working group assessed routes subsidised by WSCC and a survey completed by 8,242 passengers was used to help make decisions.

Councillor Pieter Montyn, WSCC’s cabinet member for transport, said in 2012: “Regretfully some tough decisions have had to be made, but faced with the government reduction in grant funding we had no other option.”

At another meeting, Coun Montyn said: “None of us does this with any pleasure at all. It is something we have to do.
“It’s very difficult and very hard, but part of a much bigger picture of the overall reductions the county has to make in its spending budgets.”

The three-year programme saw several services in Crawley, Horsham and Chichester all come under scrutiny.

A WSCC spokeswoman told The Argus: “Currently we have no plans to make any further reductions in subsidies to non-commercial bus services.
“We worked really hard to make sure residents were involved in the decision-making process.
“We also worked closely alonside the bus operators to explore all of the avenues that were available to us.”

Free onboard wi-fi

WHILE some Sussex bus services face the cut, others have received free wi-fi.

Metrobus services 23, 270, 271 and 273 in the South Downs National Park (SDNP) were equipped in June this year.

The wifi scheme is part of a wider initiative funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, through the Department for Transport, encouraging people to take the bus into the countryside.

But Chris Smith of the Love Your Bus Campaign said the introduction of wifi on some buses indicated there was no overall policy on buses.

He said: “I think it shows up the chaos of bus funding.”

He said people would not see Government-funded wifi on rural services as a priority while ESCC looks to cut other routes.

The wi-fi initiative came a month after the reintroduction of Sunday services on some routes in the SDNP.

Services were extended on four services in West Sussex and four in East Sussex.

ESCC put the funding into the 25 Cuckmere Bus, 121 and 123 Compass buses and 130, 131 and 132 community buses covering the Lewes area while WSCC’s 1/91 and 70 Stagecoach buses, 99A Compass bus and 271 Metrobus also saw a boost.

Brighton and Hove’s 77, 78 and 79 services to Devil’s Dyke, Stanmer Park and Ditchling Beacon also benefited.

The money, £3.8 million, was handed down to several local authorities across the South East.
The fund received a £2 million boost in July this year.

A SDNPA spokeswoman said it was important for people to use the services if they wanted them to remain.