New support bus services to West Maidstone

The bus company Arriva will on 24 July withdraw the services they consider no longer financially viable following the £2.2m pa reduction in support for local bus services by the KCC Conservative Executive.

Following concerns raised by many local residents Ian Chittenden, Liberal Democrat County Councillor Spokesperson for Highways and Transport raised the issue with Kent County Council Transport Officers.

KCC Officers have now agreed that bus company Nu-Venture will provide a revised services as detailed on the link below which will start from 24th July.

This is still subject to a final sign off by KCC and formal notification to the Traffic Commissioners, who oversee bus timetable changes nationally, but this is not anticipated to be a problem.

We appreciate the efforts of the KCC Officers and the team at Nu- Venture in making these arrangements at short notice.

It is important that residents support these revised services to ensure that they are retained.

Information from Nu-Venture

Buses operated by locally owned Nu-Venture will replace certain Arriva services in the Maidstone area with trips at shopping times on Mondays to Fridays starting on 24 July. English National Concession Passes will continue to be accepted for travel and cash/card fares will still be available from the bus driver.

•         Nu-Venture Bus 78, previously discontinued in 2022 because it was not possible to run it reliably because of driver shortages, has been resurrected and will provide two round trips in each direction between Queens Road, Barming, Upper Fant Road and Maidstone Town Centre.

 Existing Nu-Venture services 79A/79C are revised and renumbered 79 with timetable changes allowing about thirty minutes extra shopping time in Maidstone to meet local requests. Bus 79 will start at Mid Kent Shops, serving Tintern Road, Castle Rd, Conway Rd, Maxwell Drive and Poplar Grove en route to/from Maidstone Town Centre. The section of route which currently serves Headingley Rd, Allington Way and Hildenborough Crescent is discontinued for now, pending the possible creation of parking restrictions to allow buses free passage.

Full timetables for the affected routes will be available from 10 July at the company’s website http://www.nu-venture.co.uk