Horley residents gather at 'ghost' bus stop to protest axing of bus route
Residents and their local councillor gathered at a ‘ghost’ bus stop to protest against the axing, without public consultation, of a bus route that served a council estate in Horley.
The Riverside Gardens estate bordered by Massetts Road, the railway line, the airport and the A23 had an hourly service – the Metrobus 424 - between Horley town centre and Gatwick until September 27. But that has been axed altogether, leaving many elderly, low-income and vulnerable residents of the estate – locally known as The Gardens - stranded, say Green councillors.
Recent cuts to the area’s bus services have been “savage and cynical” and designed to maximise Metrobus’s profits, they say.
Cllr Neha Boghani, Green district councillor for Horley East & Salfords, said: “Having just one bus an hour in an estate where car ownership is low and there are many elderly residents was bad enough, but now Metrobus has completely given up on the estate. All residents have left is the Compass 26 service, which runs through the estate on three mornings a week; that’s fine for a quick visit to Horley but no good if you want to come back later than 1pm, or if you need to get into town on a different day.”
Cllr Boghani added: “For Surrey County Council, whose strapline is ‘we leave no-one behind’, to cut buses this savagely without even any public consultation is shameful, and a dereliction of their commitment to serve all residents. Our residents deserve better.”
One resident who attended the bus-stop gathering said the loss of the bus route had taken away her social life as she uses a walking frame and can’t walk into Horley.
Another resident, who doesn't drive for medical reasons, explained how she can no longer get her parents to their medical appointments by accompanying them on the bus. “The impact on this area from the loop that’s been removed is unbelievable,” she said. “There are so many elderly people and people with disabilities living around here and we can’t afford to keep taking taxis."
Another resident, who looks after vulnerable young adults, said the loss of the bus had made it harder for her and other carers to get to work. “And it has made it more difficult to teach the young people independence skills, and they can't get to the places they used to enjoy visiting.”
Cllr Catherine Baart, Green County Councillor for Earlswood and Reigate South, asked Surrey County Council’s cabinet last week (October 28) what the council could do to help, but was told that no residents had been left without a bus service so the council would not fund alternative arrangements. [See note to editors for full answer]
Meanwhile, Metrobus has also drastically reduced the service from Redhill bus station to the Park 25 estate; this used to run every 15 minutes but has been cut to once an hour, cut services to Pendleton Road in Redhill, Horley Row in Horley and halved bus services to the Whitebushes estate as part of these changes.
Cllr Jonathan Essex (Redhill East) has challenged that the only option was to cut the service to Park 25. “The option of continuing the service north to Merstham by allowing buses to go through the barriers at Park 25 must be properly considered,” he said. Green councillors have also called for the half-hourly bus services to Whitebushes to be restored.
Cllr Essex claimed that Metrobus have proposed bus cuts rather than improve bus services overall. “When I met Metrobus they told me the reason for cutting services in Horley and to Park 25 in Redhill was to improve the service to the new Westvale Park estate near Horley. This is ludicrous: it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. We shouldn’t be improving services for one set of residents by taking services away from another group; we should be adding new services to give a basic level of service to everyone.
“Cutting services to 2,000 residents in Redhill and removing a bus route completely that served 3,000 residents in the Gardens Estate in Horley to improve the service to 4,000 residents in Westvale Park should not be treated as an ‘operational decision’ by a bus company. Such a harsh cut should have some form of public consultation, and alternatives required to be put on the table, not just an ‘internal review’ by the council.”
Cllr Catherine Baart and Cllr Essex met Surrey County Council’s passenger transport team on Friday (October 31) and called on the Council to provide a way forward that restores the bus services to Park 25 and the Horley Riverside Gardens estate.
Cllr Baart said: “The County Council has committed to meet Metrobus to see if there is a way to restore these services, so that we increase overall bus use in Surrey. We have also been promised that the Surrey Connect digital ‘dial-a-ride’ service will now be made available to those living in the Horley Gardens estate, at least until a regular bus service to this area is restored.”