Anna Firth, Member of Parliament for Southend West together with local resident, Josephine Pain, have presented a petition to First Essex Buses calling for Route 21 to be reinstated.
On 6th October, Anna Firth MP and local resident, Josephine Pain, presented a 550 signature petition to First Busses Commercial Director, Garry Nicholass outside the Iveagh Hall on Leigh Road.
Ms Firth has been supporting Ms Pain to get the Route 21 reinstated since April of this year when the route was withdrawn attracting huge criticism from local residents. MP, Anna Firth, has been extremely vocal in her opposition to the route changes, including raising the issue with First Buses in Parliament, with Ministers and with Southend City Council. Route 21 allows local residents essential access to Southend Hospital and to local schools.
Mr Nicholass stated that as a result of repeated lobbying from Ms Firth and local residents, First Buses was now actively considering how to preserve the route by amending Route 3 to incorporate essential aspects of Southend’s Route 21. First Buses are now preparing a formal proposal to Essex County Council for funding to enable this to take place supported by Ms Firth.
As well as presenting the petition, Ms Firth and Mr Nicholass discussed a number of other topics, including how First Essex are modernising their fleet to be more environmentally friendly, how they are creating a transport system fit for Southend’s new city status and about the immediate financial challenges facing bus companies at the moment, partly as a result of the covid pandemic.
Following the event, Anna said:
“I was absolutely delighted to support this excellent petition. My constituents in Southend West deserve access to the best possible bus service, and I was horrified earlier this year when routes were axed and amended. I am so proud of the work that Josephine has done in gathering so many signatures – it really does show how important our buses are to people!
“I was pleased that First Buses listened to our case, and that they are making plans to ensure that residents can still access the services they need by public transport. I will continue to fight for better buses on behalf of everyone here in Southend West and I intend to raise the issue again in the House of Commons next week”
Campaigner and local resident Josephine Pain added:
“I was so pleased with the progress we made at today’s meeting. The number of residents who have signed our petition shows the strength of feeling on this topic, and I am pleased that we finally seem to be making some progress on getting improvements to our local bus services.”
