Call for free bus travel for veterans living in East Sussex

On Tuesday (July 14), East Sussex County Council is due to debate a motion calling for it to “investigate the implementation” of a free bus travel scheme for veterans.

The motion, by Green Party councillors Becca Horn and Shaun Dowling, says there are around 21,173 veterans living in East Sussex, including those who “live with service-related physical and mental health conditions.”

The motion reads: “For many veterans, a bus journey is not simply a trip from one place to another. It is a means of getting to hospital appointments, GP surgeries, support groups, veterans’ hubs, employment opportunities, and for many, community activities that help maintain their health and wellbeing and independence.

“Getting to leisure facilities can improve healthier outcomes. Increased mobility can reduce loneliness and social isolation. Easier travel can help veterans access employment, training, and voluntary opportunities.

“These are wider outcomes that benefit not only veterans but our wider communities as well.

“We are not proposing something unprecedented. Worcestershire County Council has already introduced free bus travel for veterans and serving personnel, demonstrating that local authorities can work with transport providers to deliver meaningful support to the Armed Forces community.”

The motion says the scheme would be “a practical way of honouring” the council’s support for the Armed Forces Covenant — a voluntary pledge, through which the authority has committed to fair treatment of the Armed Forces community.

In a report to councillors, officers say the majority of veterans in the county already qualify for free off-peak bus travel under a national scheme. This is because they are either over the stage pension age or have an eligible disability.

Officers say the sort of “currently unfunded discretionary scheme” proposed by the motion would result in around 5,798 additional people becoming eligible for free bus transport. The cost of this (depending on uptake) could be as much as £530,000, the report says.

The report adds the council is “operating within a constrained financial environment, including reliance on Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) to balance the 2026/27 budget.”

It says the council ceased a range of locally-funded bus fare reductions at the end of last year “due to a significant reduction in [the] national Bus Grant funding … allocated to East Sussex.”