Campaigners desperate to save Swale's loss-making bus services have been collecting names for a petition.

On Saturday they were at Sittingbourne's Forum shopping centre and on Tuesday they were whipping up support at Sheerness market.

Among the routes at risk is the Sunday service of the 360 Leysdown, Eastchurch, Minster, Sheerness, West Minster service on the Isle of Sheppey which was given up by Arriva last year and taken on by Sittingbourne firm Chalkwell Coach Hire.

Kent County Council is planning to axe £2.2m of public subsidy for the at-risk routes in the next financial year to balance its books and is holding a public consultation until April 20.

The proposed changes mean 48 contracts could be withdrawn. Swale has 15 in the firing line. KCC currently spends £6 million subsiding the services each year.

Richard Shannon of Brunswick Field, Conyer, said: "This will dramatically affect the lives of the elderly, the disabled and able-bodied who live in rural communities and who do not have their own transport.

"I live in a rural community and have done so for more than 30 years. By cutting these essential bus services, it condemns myself and my wife to either four walls and doing on-line shopping or moving to an area where we can actually catch a bus. Both of us are pensioners and disabled."

Retired magistrates' clerk John Greenhill, 72, fumed: "Motorists are constantly told by the powers that be to leave their cars at home and travel by public transport. That is all very well when there is public transport available.

"The whole point of the buses is to ensure those without transport can access healthcare services and go shopping. KCC subsidised these buses because they were important to the needs of the passengers. So what has changed? Nothing."

He added: "I can only speak of the route I know, the No. 9. Its withdrawal will be disastrous for my wife and I. We are non-motorists. This route is essential for us to get to at least four main supermarkets and, most importantly, the Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital and the nearby doctors’ surgery and dispensary.

"It is not possible for many people to walk to those facilities who live outside Sittingbourne and arrive at the town's bus hub."

Mr Greenhill, from College Road, pointed out the hospital is the main blood-testing unit for the area and offers others services including X-rays and eye-screening for diabetics and pointed out a taxi fare instead would cost £7 each way.

"Over the course of a year, one visit a week to a supermarket will cost a minimum of £728. Because of the need to visit, say, one more supermarket each week, simple mathematics show the cost to be at least £1,456 a year," he added, saying it would bite into pensioners' fixed incomes.

The lack of buses would mean those in wheelchairs would have to turn to social services to provide transport, he suggested. "The cost would be far in excess of the subsidy paid to maintain the bus service which is the more viable proposition," he said.

He added: "KCC states the number of passengers on the routes under threat have declined in recent years. Of course they have. Do they not realise the pandemic has had a major effect on that? We have all been precluded from using the buses as a result of the restrictions imposed on us. We have, in effect, been prisoners in our own homes.

"Taking away the subsidy and the bus service will give us a lifetime akin to being subjected to the effects of the pandemic.

"People from County Hall need to get out of the building to make realistic assessments and listen to passengers. We exist at times other than canvassing for elections."

Also backing the fight to retain the subsidies is Jackie Davidson who also goes under the name of Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Sheik Mihand.

To make your views known to the council, visit www.kent.gov.uk/bussavings. To request hard copies, email bussavings@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 421437 referencing KCC Bus Funding Reduction.

Routes at risk

8,9,343,344, 345 - Sittingbourne rural routes

332 - Deans Bottom, Stockbury, Yelsted, Sittingbourne schools

360 - Leysdown, Eastchurch, Minster, Sheerness, West Minster (recently given up by Arriva and taken on by Chalkwell). Sunday service.

664 - Conyer to Lynsted

Swale Kent Karrier