People power is being called on to save services from being axed in a threatened new wave of bus cutbacks.

Six routes in Dover district are affected out of a total 78 in Kent.

This has led to a protest letter to Kent County Council, which is proposing the cuts, from 11 MPs.

Now Cllr Keith Sansum, of Dover Town Council, wants to mobilise public opposition.

He said: “They are proposing to end the 6.30am service for the 61A from Dover to Whitfield, which would affect workers. I don’t understand why, because it is such a well used service.

“The other cutbacks would affect schoolchildren and the elderly, in some cases even making them housebound.

“I would urge people to write to KCC and their county councillors to try to stop this, explaining the effects.

"I would like to see people power in action to save routes as we saved one service, the 68, in Dover a couple of years ago.”

In 2015 continual campaigning by residents helped save the 68 bus service in the Clarendon and Westbury area of Dover.

Stagecoach and KCC pulled the route there because of obstructive parking on the estate, where there is a steep hill, but the route was reinstated with alterations nearly two months later.

Cllr Sansum was a leading figure in that campaign as chairman of the Clarendon and Westbury Community Association.

He has already written to his own county councillors, Nigel Collor and Pauline Beresford, about the proposed bus cuts.

He said: “Being a daily bus user I know first hand the effects any cuts to bus services will have on the Dover community. My mail bag is filling up with people who will be affected by any such moves.”

The proposed cutbacks come on top of a series of service cuts in the area by Stagecoach in September, although these proposals would also affect routes run by other companies.

They involve taking away journeys subsidised by Kent County Council on one route but leaving its other journeys intact.

KCC’s environment and transport cabinet committee on November 30 agreed that the proposals should go out to public consultation from January 17 to March 27.

A decision is expected in May with contracts with the present operators ending in September.

The routes affected are described as SNBS (socially necessary bus services) because they are seen as a lifeline to the elderly, the vulnerable, schoolchildren and those in villages with no car.

Journeys under threat are for five Monday to Saturday routes including the 61 and 63 Whitfield to Aycliffe, the 82 and 82A from Kingsdown to Deal the 93 Dover to Martin and the 541/542/544 Deal-Dover-Sandwich.

The two other routes affected are the Monday to Saturday and Sunday ones for the 60,61,61A Aycliffe-Dover-Whitfield.

How does Kent County Council justify these plans?

Who are the MPs who have put their names to the protest letter?

See this week's Dover and East Kent Mercuries.