Surrey County Conservatives

SCC Conservatives protect the 409 & 411 bus services (22nd March)

The Conservative Group on Surrey County Council are delighted that the 409 & 411 bus services have been protected following the awarding of new contracts for the routes to Metrobus.

The contracts to run the 409 (East Grinstead to Croydon) and 411 (Tatsfield to Redhill) services will run for four years from 2 June 2007 through until Spring 2011.

Chairman of SCC’s Passenger Transport Working Group David Hodge remarked, “This is great news for the people of East Surrey. There are some 280,000 people who use these two services, many of whom are elderly and/or do not have their own vehicles, and these bus services are vital to their lifestyle. I am delighted that they are to continue.

I also think it is important that an enormous amount of credit goes to the Leader of the Council Nick Skellett, for promoting a 5% increase to Passenger Transport Service in the 07/08 budget. It should also be noted that SCC has spent £25,000 on keeping the services going until the contracts with Metrobus start on June 2^nd. Both Nick Skellett and SCC’s Executive Member for Transport Helyn Clack deserve praise, and I cannot emphasise enough what a good piece of news this is for the people of East Surrey.

In all this there is, however, a note of regret, and that is because of the irresponsible scare-mongering of the local Liberal Democrats. They have tried to alarm people by claiming that SCC were cutting these vital services, but that was simply not true. The Leader of the Council himself was determined that these services would continue, and I therefore cannot see how anyone could claim that we were anything other than 100% committed to keeping them going. I would like the Lib-Dems to apologise for misleading the public, but experience tells me that this is unlikely.

The most important thing, however, is that two vital bus services are to continue, and that local residents will continue to be able to use them to get around East Surrey”.