Hockley Residents Association are still battling hard over the 7 and 8 bus services.
You can find out more from their website here.
Basically, they are investigating two issues:
“23 January 2009: Councils are failing to support bus users.
RDC have still not objected to the No.7 bus cuts (despite claims to the contrary)”
Nothing so far on the Conservative website – but then , their ‘local news’ section on Hockley hasn’t been updated for over a year.
The whole situation is very strange:
– RDC have not objected to the cuts, despite these being against their own planning policy. This may be this is because it will save them money on subsidized bus passes.
– ECC have refused to subsidize extra trips. Initially they said that this was due to the high cost per passenger but, when HRA surveys showed usage 12 times higher than Arriva said, ECC changed the reason for their refusal to “policy”.
– Arriva have repeatedly failed to respond to our surveys, confirming our belief that this is a deliberate attack on buss pass holders, which could spread.
– Neither RDC or ECC are responding to requests for information, so the HRA has had to issue Freedom of Information requests to both to get basic information.
The HRA is still looking for alternative solutions. This could include switching existing ECC subsidies from under used evening buses (when we have twice as many as during the day!).
It is a same that neither RDC or ECC is willing to support their residents…..and remember that all residents are asking is for 5 buses a day to go 1.5 miles further i.e. 75 miles per week. Sad, isn’t it!