MP calls for new express bus service between Lewes and Eastbourne in House of Commons speech
A MP in Sussex has called for a new bus service between Lewes and Eastbourne.
Lib Dem Lewes MP James MacCleary said the A27 in his constituency ‘desperately needs a direct service’ between the towns during a recent speech in the House of Commons.
He said: “We must make that happen. The stops are on the road, there’s just no bus to serve them.”
The MP explained that he frequently hears from people across the Lewes constituency, which includes Polegate and Plumpton, ‘who want to use the bus but simply can’t’.
He added: “People must be at the heart of transport policy.”
In a Facebook post that featured video footage of Mr MacCleary’s speech, the MP highlighted the ‘ridiculous situation’ of a woman from Wilmington village. He said: “If she wants to take the bus from Wilmington, where she lives, to Lewes, where she works, what would be a 15-minute journey turns into an hour.”
He said she has to travel in the wrong direction to Polegate before getting on a slow service through multiple villages. He said: “If we want to encourage people out of cars and onto buses, we first must provide a bus.”
Mr MacCleary told the House of Commons that the resident’s need to drive the route is ‘not a lifestyle choice’ but ‘a failure of network design’.
He said an A27 express bus service would help create a network that provides what people need and not just what is commercially viable.