Bus service feedback form launched

Linked to its Big Conversation on bus services, KCC committed to launch a service giving scope for feedback on bus services. The bus feedback form can now be accessed via the KCC website.

The form enables anyone to comment either on KCC's own bus-related services (such as the Young Person's Travel Pass, or subsisted bus services) or on specific commercial bus services (ie the overwhelming majority of bus services that are not subsisted by KCC).

Recording feedback on commercial services will not generate a reply; you will still have to go directly to the operator for that. However, it will provide information about issues to form the basis of KCC's regular conversations with the bus companies through Quality Bus Partnerships. This should be a valuable way to ensure that concerns (for example, over experiences of school buses) are heard and expressed.

SD341: hope for an end to the closure

Public footpath SD341, which runs north-west from Stones Cross Road in Crockenhill, has been closed at the railway bridge since October 2017, as a result of Network Rail concluding that the bridge was unsafe. This has been a cause of mounting concern to residents, not least when the closure has been extended twice, the second ending last week (11 January).

I have taken up these concerns, working with both KCC Rights of Way officers and with Sir Michael Fallon MP, who has raised questions in Parliament with the Transport Secretary.

Just before Christmas (23 December), the bridge itself was removed by Network Rail contractors. This added to the concerns, but on investigation it appears that replacement of the bridge is scheduled for week 51 of the financial year (17 March). Once the works have been completed, the footpath should be able to reopen, probably around the end of March. In that case, the full extent of the new closure (running from 11 January until 21 June) should not be needed.