College bus route axed

Coaches to Bexhill College and a weekend service from Little Common to Sidley are among those axed by East Sussex County Council.

The council chose to withdraw funding from a string of routes they felt were not making enough money to justify their place in the yearly budget.

Other services running from Hastings will also be withdrawn from June.

College principal Karen Hucker revealed she was only told about the plans last Thursday and is "very unhappy".

The county council said 30,000 will be saved each year as a result of cuts to Hastings and Rother services.

Residents, including elderly people and students, will now have to pay out for taxi fares or use other bus services.

The Renown Travel 303 Saturday service from Little Common taking passengers to the town centre and Sidley will be lost.

Coaches operated by Eastbourne Buses and Renown Travel from Hastings, Robertsbridge, Rye and surrounding villages to the college site in Penland Road will not be subsidised from September.

Cllr Matthew Lock, lead member for transport and environment, called it " a very difficult decision".

He said: "The fact that the Government has not recognised the needs of East Sussex has left us no choice. We face a five per cent increase in running costs in services year on year. Our grant for transport was only 600,000 this year.

"If we continue as we are, we would eventually lose all bus services, which clearly I want to avoid. Not many people use Saturday and Sunday bus services. There needs to be at least a 40 per cent usage to make it worthwhile for us to subsidise it. Some of the weekend services only have a 13 per cent usage."

On the college services, Cllr Lock said: "There have been talks going on for a while and we have made the decision."

Bexhill College principal Karen Hucker said staff and governors first discovered the plans in a letter just days before the decision.

She said: "The suggestion that we have been negotiated with is misleading. The issue of increased costs as a result of increased numbers attending the college this year was mentioned in a transport meeting in February 2006 attended by our student services officer '“ there was no mention of threats to remove subsidy.

"There was no contact with the senior managers or governors of the college about it prior to the letter on the 20th.

"Essentially this proposal will affect access to post 16 education for a number of rural areas including Rye, Burwash and Robertsbridge".