Will Essex County Council Save Vital Hospital And Shopping Bus Link? (Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats)

Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats <info@saffronwaldenlibdems.org.uk>

Will Essex County Council Save Vital Hospital And Shopping Bus Link?

January 4, 2007 11:00 PM

The Excel bus company has announced the scrapping of the 333 bus service from Stansted Mountfitchet to Epping.

With only a month's notice, the Excel bus company has announced the scrapping of the 333 bus service from Stansted Mountfitchet to Epping via hospitals and town centres in Bishop's Stortford and Harlow from the start of February 2007. The news became public only yesterday (3 January).

This morning Cllr Alan Dean, Stansted member on Uttlesford District Council, began the distribution of around 300 letters containing a questionnaire and petition to homes on the Mountfitchet estate in Stansted, where the long-standing bus service begins.

"This is a vital service for many people. While giving out the letter, I met a man at a bus stop who depends on it to visit his family in Harlow. A lady said she uses it regularly to go to hospital in both Bishop's Stortford and Harlow. The first person to return the questionnaire told me she uses it to go to St. Margaret's Hospital in Epping. It's a three-hospital lifeline as well as a shoppers' bus.

"I have written to Essex County Council Highways and Transportation Department asking the county council to step in an rescue the service. Their immediate response by return of e-mail was not at all encouraging. They say they have no money and that people should find alternatives. Not good enough! I have asked them to wait for the responses to my questionnaire and will be back in contact with them early next week."

"It's no good telling people to change buses in Bishop's Stortford after a countryside tour of villages around the airport using the Village Link 7 service. The 333 takes 15 minutes from the Mountfitchet estate to the Herts and Essex Hospital. Using Village Link 7 it takes 53 minutes just to get to the centre of Stortford, where people will have to wait and change for the hospital. Worst still, people from Stansted with Essex bus passes will have to pay for the Herts leg if they have to change buses and when they may be unwell. I think the County Council may need to address its priorities on this one."

Alan Dean has not yet been in touch with the Excel bus company, which runs the 333 route on a commercial basis. "I expect Excel to provide evidence detailing why they can't run this service profitably before calling on public funds. Maybe their marketing could be better", added Cllr Dean. "It's all well and good for the County Council to be promoting bus services that go via Stansted Airport, but for local people it is access to food, health and families that matters most."