The Big Conversation: coming to the Darent Valley

Yesterday evening I attended KCC's Bus Summit at County Hall, which represented the next stage in the 'Big Conversation' on the future of rural public transport.

During the initial consultation, three main options were discussed: feeder services from more remote areas to the main bus network; a 'bookable bus' service; and a taxi-bus service, using smaller vehicles to run services. The first and third options would be timetabled; the bookable bus (which turned out to be the least popular) offered flexibility but potentially long and somewhat unpredictable journeys.

The 'Big Conversation' consultation ran through the summer, including opportunities to respond both on paper and online; a series of public and parish meetings; and deliberative meetings involving some 110 people at three venues across the County. The Sevenoaks public meeting in July, in which I took part, appears to have been one of the best-attended and effective meetings.

The next stage was the development of a series of pilot projects, and these - along with the feedback from the consultation - were reported at last nigth's meeting. Drawing on feedback received in the consultation, along with statistical information, assessments of operator capacity and the like, Kent Highways officers have come forward with five projects, three using the feeder service model and two the taxi-bus model. They are:

• Dover villages feeder bus service
• Villages South and East of Maidstone: feeder bus 
• Sevenaoks villages taxi-bus service
• Tenterden taxi-bus service
• West Malling and other villages: feeder bus service

The Sevenoaks pilot has direct implications for Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley. Starting in Fairseat and Stansted - very much outside the Division, and indeed the District - it is then proposed to run through West Kingsdown (bordering the Division), East Hill in the outer parts of Shoreham Parish, then through Otford to Sevenoaks.

The pilots should be formally approved in January 2019, to be followed by a period of mobilisation. It might have been possible to launch them in April, but with the possibility of pressures on Kent roads in the aftermath of Brexit, the launch will instead take place in June. The pilots will run for a year, after which conclusions can be drawn, and - if they prove successful - the models applied more widely.