The consultation period for Surrey County Council’s Local Transport Review has ended and the authority is now considering the future of subsidised rural bus routes, including the 503 Hambledon service.
Details of the review process can be found here – https://www.surreysays.co.uk/e-i-directorate-programme-group/closed-copy-of-ltr
As part of the consultation Hambledon Parish Council made a submission in support of retaining the village’s only bus service, which is operated by Stagecoach but subsidised by SCC. Here is what the council said.
“Hambledon Parish Council is grateful for the opportunity to comment on the Local Transport Review following the request by Surrey County Council for feedback from stakeholders.
The Parish Council is aware of the pressures faced by SCC with regard to funding and the need to review spending.
However, it urges SCC to ensure that Hambledon’s only bus service, the 503, remains in operation as it is a vital means of transport for a number of our more vulnerable residents, mostly elderly, living alone and without cars. (It also hopes for the retention, as a daily service, of the 71.)
Please consider this: Hambledon is a small rural village. It has a community store, but otherwise no shops, no banks, no supermarkets and no doctor or dentist surgeries. None of the above are within practical walking distance. To access any of these residents must use a car, or the bus.
The 503 only operates three days a week, twice in each direction. This means it cannot be used by commuters or schoolchildren. So its passenger numbers are inevitably limited and this must be taken into account when assessing its financial viability.
What is very clear to us is that, for those who do use it, it is an absolutely essential part of their lives. They rely on the 503 to visit all of the services named above, making appointments around the times of the bus. The route, connecting Hambledon with Milford (shops/surgeries) and Godalming and Guildford (supermarkets/banks/hospitals) is, quite literally, a life line.
When Surrey County Council conducted its previous bus review in 2011/2012, Hambledon Parish Council urged for the 503 to be spared. It was, and for all the reasons given above which are still just as relevant today.
We pointed out that if the 503 was scrapped Hambledon and Hydestile would be left without any public transport. We said that users of the 503 may be small in number, but arguably their need is greater than most. And we said that it was wrong to provide these residents with free bus passes, but remove the only bus service from their doorsteps.
We also discovered in talking to these residents that the 503 was important to their well-being and sense of independence. They did not want to feel a nuisance to beg for lifts or require a dial-a-ride service like the Hoppa to make a separate journey to collect them. They wanted a public timetabled bus at the end of their road.
All of this is a true today as it was in 2011/12.
The parish council has been working to increase the profile of the 503. It requested that bus stop signs be returned to the village. Surrey CC agreed and they have been.
Hambledon Parish Council has a long-standing commitment to helping find a suitable site for affordable housing. It is in the nature of this sort of development to have good public transport links nearby.
It appears that a site may be have been found and the English Rural Housing Association is proposing to build 17 new homes, 12 affordable, at the Lane End area of Hambledon, which is where the 503 starts and ends.
There is also a new housing development beside Milford Hospital which is currently under construction. Of some 120 new homes, 36 will be affordable.
This development is a short walk from the route of the 503. The service could even take a small detour into the development and out again, increasing passenger numbers.
Please look to enhance and integrate the 503 to provide for existing and potentially new need. Hambledon wants to face the future as a vibrant and inclusive community. The removal of the 503 would leave the village isolated and some of its residents bereft.
Hambledon Parish Council also hopes that route 71 will be maintained between Guildford, Godalming and Haslemere nas a regular, daily service. Although this service does not travel through Hambledon it does visit the Petworth Road and Witley station and can be reached by the more mobile on foot. This daily service is important for village school children, commuters and shoppers and also for the proposed new development at Lane End, mentioned above.”