Town demands buses shake-up
WESTERHAM needs a better bus service to Sevenoaks, a parish councillor has demanded.
At the moment, the town has a twice-hourly service to Biggin Hill and Bromley but only an hourly one in to Sevenoaks.
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WAITING: Parish councillor Linda Rodgers at the bus stop on Westerham Green waiting for the bus to Sevenoaks
Parish councillor Linda Rodgers said: "We're part of the Sevenoaks district but they don't seem to want to be connected to us.
"We could do with a bus twice an hour and it needs to run past this magic time of 7.30pm (when the service finishes in the evening)."
She pointed out that Sevenoaks is the town's nearest train station but people using the trains could not get home easily later in the evening.
Residents who work in the town were unable to work late if they travelled in by public transport. They could find themselves stuck with an expensive taxi trip back to Westerham.
Cllr Rodgers said she raised the issue of poor transport running east to west along the A25 as part of the current local development framework process.
At a recent meeting with Sevenoaks District Council planning policy manager Alan Dyer on the framework, she asked if it would be possible for them to include a commitment to better public transport in the district's future plans.
See page 18 and 19 for a full report on the problem.
2 Comments
by Philip, Westerham
Saturday, March 07 2009, 8:32PM
“What is really needed is a commuter bus service (am and pm) to Oxted Station which is only 4 miles away as against 7 miles for Sevenoaks. The existing buses run much longer routes and aren't an option. It's also cheaper to get to London from Oxted. Ok not so many trains but they are usually very reliable. But Westerham is in the forgotten corner of Kent and the politicians always look to Sevenoaks - perhaps the answer is to vote to join Surrey - the maybe our bit of the A25 will be then resurfaced, and the Tatsfield bus will come to our transport rescue!”
by mrs.Gill Dunseath, Sundridge Sevenoaks
Friday, March 06 2009, 10:44PM
“Its catch 22 we have to have cars as there are no buses .Imagine the revenue if every london commuter could rely on buses instead of paying £5 to park your car. We have been very spoilt we dont have to wait in the rain for a late bus. We dont have to wait as a traffic jam holds up the A25.I wish there was a way to make the buses viable as I am sure they would put a service together if they could .”