The group 'Save our Buses' want a Manchester-style scheme where bus services are publicly owned.
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00:00 Folkestone residents say for the past eight months catching a bus has been difficult to say the least.
00:06 Stagecoach axed or reduced 11 of its East Kent bus services in September,
00:11 including five in Folkestone, and one of the founders is disabled,
00:15 so getting the bus is his main mode of transport.
00:19 Well I had a surgery appointment Wednesday morning,
00:23 and I had to pay £5.80 to get a taxi to the surgery.
00:27 And as a pensioner I have no way of getting any extra income.
00:31 I can't generate extra funding.
00:33 When they ax these things, they say that they've got the passengers well at heart,
00:39 but then they really don't.
00:40 Him and co-founder Keith want bus services to be back in public ownership,
00:45 like it is in Manchester.
00:47 We need to subsidise it in some way to allow people just to have a social life,
00:52 not just a social life, to live.
00:54 We know this is a long campaign. It's not going to go change tomorrow.
00:57 We're going to keep on campaigning, and we won't stop campaigning
01:00 until we get a publicly run bus service.
01:02 For some I've spoken to in Folkestone today, they don't have a car,
01:05 or some are disabled and they can't drive,
01:08 or for some they'd simply rather get the bus because it's a little bit cheaper
01:11 and better for the environment.
01:12 So for those people, they're concerned to hear there's a reduced service
01:16 because they rely on the buses to get from A to B.
01:19 Well not everybody wants to drive in any way.
01:21 We're supposed to be lowering emissions, aren't we?
01:24 They're providing services to the cricket match.
01:27 We can't get to the hospital without having three buses now
01:30 in Kent and Canterbury Hospital. That's ridiculous.
01:32 I use my car, but I'm getting to the age now
01:36 when I really can't afford to run a car.
01:39 Sometimes you can wait for nearly half an hour before the bus turns up,
01:43 and then when it does turn up, there's two or three together.
01:47 A KCC Labour councillor says the government has cut councils' funding,
01:51 making it harder for KCC to subsidise bus services.
01:55 The government have been cutting back all of the funding
01:59 that actually comes down to Kent County.
02:02 We have to pay for this bus service and the government have stopped us.
02:07 The Department for Transport said KCC is receiving nearly £40m
02:11 to improve local bus services.
02:14 This is in addition to £1m every year since 2014.
02:18 Sagecoach said there are fewer people travelling on buses
02:21 and less often than before the pandemic.
02:24 With this and higher operational costs,
02:26 it said difficult decisions had to be taken,
02:29 but it will continue to work with KCC.
02:31 Locals in the seaside town have certainly got wheels in motion
02:35 for their campaign, but now they want to see the wheels on their buses
02:39 back in motion as they hope to see more of their bus services restored
02:43 and in the hands of the public.
02:45 Sophia Aitken for KMTV in Folkestone.