Our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent and beyond.

Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking here. Join the debate by emailing letters@thekmgroup.co.uk

‘Bus revolution’ still a long way off in Kent

Is Labour's "London-style" bus revolution likely or possible? In a word, no.

The bus network has been so damaged and compromised, it is difficult to see how things can be improved, based on current policies.

Since Kent produced their Bus Improvement Plan, bus services have been cut and reduced every year since, in spite of regular cash injections from the government.

This government has promised £1.1bn including fuel subsidies and, of course, concession cards, such as those for OAPs. Additional grants will no doubt be given to increase the number of zero emission buses.

It is no good throwing good money after bad, and it may be that the government has realised this is the case and wants not only a bus revolution but also a local government revolution. The word that describes local government in Kent is ramshackle, with poor public services, and expedient, short-term policies, aligned with "game-changing" large public projects that aim to distract from the reality.

To have London-style bus services, London-style transport administration is required, not someone working from home in Kent.

We don't need a unitary Kent County Council, nor unitary districts as seems likely in East Anglia, instead two unitary councils for West and East Kent and an enlarged Medway to cover the Thames estuary.

More importantly, what is needed is a Transport for the South East, probably covering Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Transport flows better when there are fewer internal borders. Whether there is a partnership with bus companies, or franchises does not matter but what does matter is that the infrastructure, the bus garages/depots, bus stations and shelters need to be in public ownership.

The bus needs to be integrated into urban areas, and not cast adrift. It also means more bus lanes and bus priorities so that bus reliability is improved.

The bus passenger should be at the centre of policy making and not a nuisance or a profit centre, to be ignored or patronised by policy makers and bus operators.

If Labour are saying that everywhere will have a London Transport or even a Greenline level of bus service, then fair enough, but I find that unlikely.

Instead we will continue to have a few urban services and a swarm of zombie or ghost services. Any bus service that has less than an hourly frequency is a ghost service.

Will we have night buses so that people can get to work or social events? Probably not. How about rural bus services? Will small towns and villages cut off from connection by bus, on grounds of viability, be joined up to the rest of society, or will they remain car dependent?

The UK is going through a period of an ageing demographic as the baby boom generation passes through the seasons of life. The bus industry and local government needs to embrace the passenger and that demographic, to allow everyone to travel, to socialise, at reasonable cost, in safety, and comfort.

What is needed is less revolution and more restructuring to change attitudes and remove barriers to a more comprehensive bus service in Kent.

Richard Styles

Country run by middle class virtue signallers

Recent Conservative administrations proved to be totally incompetent, failing to deliver promises, and more concerned with fighting each other than solving the problems of the country.

Thanks to them we now have on the government benches one of the worst so-called Labour administrations ever.

Unlike the days of Attlee and Wilson, it does not represent the real working class of Britain but is stuffed full of middle class virtue signallers whose priorities are the insane drive to net zero, when this country only contributes less than one per cent of global emissions of carbon dioxide; to promote the absurd claims of those who deny biological reality and to appease every last public sector worker at the expense of the productive workers of private enterprise.

It does nothing to put an end to out-of-control immigration, takes support away from pensioners and risks driving farmers from the land, while instigating policies which will damage, perhaps irretrievably, our industrial sector.

The attacks on free speech it is facilitating are a disgrace, which is undermining the democratic society we spent so many centuries creating.

If we endure five years of this shambles I dread to think what the country will have become before we have a chance to eject these inept blunderers.

Colin Bullen

New government policies welcome

The news that there will now be 13,000 more police is most welcome in a Britain left broken by Tory austerity over 14 years.

The new proposals to get Britain working are welcome too.

When I worked on a Conservative campaign team when David Cameron was Tory leader in 2010, his central pledge was to invest in British workers. Yet after Brexit, the Conservative Party handed out visa after visa to foreign nationals to not just undermine the central pledge but to break it completely, whilst at the same time claiming to be tough on immigration despite having the most open border policies in decades.

And then we come to the health service. I remember David Cameron saying it was safe in Tory hands. Well it was so safe that waiting lists rocketed, the Health Secretary would not even negotiate with doctors.

Geoffrey Brooking

Duped into voting Labour - and not impressed

If I was to give a review of the government’s performance thus far, it would make for depressing reading.

The Chancellor's budget didn't inspire confidence that it would re-set the economy and build the foundations for growth. On the contrary, raising taxes to record levels will only have a detrimental effect on our future prospects. There won't be a business or industry unaffected by the changes she has proposed.

Furthermore, the number of homeless people is continuing to rise which, when measured against the billions we've spent on accommodating illegal migrants in hotels across the country is a gross insult to those who have to endure an existence without shelter or hope of improving their situation.

And undergraduate students will have to pay more in university fees in England next year.

Farmers are up in arms at the government's changes in inheritance tax that will see death duties payable by some farmers on agricultural and business property.

The rise in energy prices implemented by Ofgem are to go up by 1.2% to £1,738 per year. This will be another blow to pensioners who already are being hit by the governments cuts in Winter Fuel Payments.

Inflation is going in the wrong direction which, inevitably, will bring higher prices to our groceries.

Some of us were duped into voting for a new government which would ease our lot after the Tories’ abysmal record when they were in office. But some things never change in politics - unless it's for the worse.

Michael Smith

Who is staffing these new services?

All these new developments promise schools, medical centres and shops.

I'd like to know where are they going to get teachers, doctors and businesses to fill the proposed buildings.

Do they have a waiting list? I think not, just more pressure on surrounding medical centres, schools and pharmacies.

Gaynor Trevett

March of technology leading to exclusion

I recently read an article that claimed that ‘some old people are tired of life’.

This aligns with the proposals for assisted dying. Both of these can be seen as a distraction from the real needs faced by older people.

A strong case is being made for greater resources to be given to palliative care. What I firmly believe is that what is needed is much greater support to be given to low-level care.

As we grow older, so does our property. The things that we could easily do in our younger years, we are now not able to do as we get older.

Care homes and sheltered accommodation are not the answer for many; too much of our lives rests in our possessions and our gardens are good for our physical and mental health.

Recently I had work done in my kitchen. I was fortunate in finding a handyman, who understood exactly what I needed, both in terms of the physical work and my personal needs.

As a society we have made great progress in technology. Medical procedures are now possible that were not even dreamt of previously.

But the cost has been that lesser needs are no longer met. QR codes, apps and technology have replaced conversations with people.

This is fine for the younger generations and sections of the older generation who can cope with such things. But for many they are a form of exclusion.

It is this exclusion which leads to older people questioning whether they have lived too long and to the feeling that life has passed them by.

Ralph A. Tebbutt

Sad reality of rising funeral costs

Lauren Abbott’s article headlined ‘Cost of dying crisis: Rise in ‘pauper’s funerals’ as prices spiral’ was both informative and thought-provoking.

It was sad but no big surprise to learn that local authorities are still having to pay for basic funerals for those who leave behind no assets and no friends or family to pay for the most basic of funerals.

They are a reminder that the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, who ‘died in a church and is buried along with her name’, is still with us today.

The national figures aren’t excessive, but did reach 500 in England in the last financial year. However, even sadder was that, given the fact that the cost of a standard funeral has now reached £9,500, more and more people are making arrangements for the cheapest of funerals without telling their loved ones and because their wishes cannot be overruled, those funerals must go ahead after they die.

This means they arrange for either their direct cremations or burials with neither mourners nor service before cremation or being laid to rest, alone in the cemetery and cost as little as £1,400.

One feasible motive for doing this is that they don’t wish to inflict the financial cost of their funeral on their relatives because they can’t pay for it themselves.

Another is that they wish to leave their loved ones better off by £9,500 when they inherit their estate when they die. The sad facts of life and death in Britain today.

John Cooper

The law should apply to all road users

Every day I see cyclists, motorcyclists, scooters and pedestrians all breaking the law by driving at excessive speeds, going up one-way streets the wrong way, ignoring traffic lights. Yet you do a few miles per hour over the speed limit and the police will have you.

And, like me, after driving 60 years you get sent on a speed awareness course for doing about 4mph over the limit.

Yes, I broke the law and expect to pay for that misdemeanour but why are the police deliberately ignoring the other road users? This is totally unfair and discriminatory and it’s time it was stopped.

The law should apply to everybody and not just car drivers who have become a cash cow for the local councils over the years. It’s time this racket was stopped.

Sid Anning