The Green and Independent Group at KCC had cause to celebrate on Thursday afternoon, as another hurdle was cleared in their attempt to stop the administration at KCC from cutting subsidies to vital bus services across the county.
Today’s Scrutiny Committee call in had been requested by Green Party councillor Rich Lehmann and seconded by Cllr Mike Sole of the Liberal Democrat group. In line with KCC Scrutiny Policy, Cllr Lehmann’s arguments against the decision were primarily based around the impact the cuts will have to Kent residents and the fact that the council have not been provided with reliable estimates of how much money will be saved by the cuts once the costs of mitigation for the cuts is factored in.
After a two hour debate at County Hall, during which many Conservative group councillors acknowledged that circumstances had changed dramatically since the original budget decision in February, the Scrutiny Committee voted 9 to 2 in favour of referring the issue back to full council.
The decision will now be deferred until September, and the issue will be open to further scrutiny from all 81 councillors at September’s full council meeting. One immediate effect of this is that all the services lined up for subsidy withdrawal will now be likely to run until the end of the year.
After the meeting Cllr Rich Lehmann said “I am delighted and surprised in equal measure at the outcome of today’s meeting. To have such strong support for our cause from so many of the Conservative councillors on the committee underlines the fact that people power works. If enough residents contact their elected representatives about issues like this to show opposition, they have the power to change opinions.”
“I hope that next month’s full council meeting will give these cuts the scrutiny they deserve in light of the hugely challenging times households across Kent are now facing. These buses are relied upon by some of the most vulnerable residents across our county, and to push ahead with the cuts when there are still so many unanswered questions relating to how much the council will actually save and what the carbon impact will be would be unnecessarily reckless.”
