Polly has expressed her fury at shock figures showing that Thanet received just 2.3% of Kent County Council bus subsidies last year.
The figures – obtained through a Freedom of Information request by Labour’s Thanet District Councillor David Green – show that Thanet received by far the lowest bus subsidy of any of Kent’s districts.
Despite being Kent’s most deprived district, Thanet finds itself languishing at the bottom of the subsidy leaderboard. In total, Thanet received a dismal £555,000 in 2025, or just 2.3% of total Kent bus subsidies of £24.2 million. Meanwhile, wealthy Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells each received more than £3 million, while affluent Sevenoaks got a whopping £4 million.
The next worst-subsidised Kent districts after Thanet (Canterbury and Dartford) receiving more than £1 million each. Just four routes in Thanet received subsidies from KCC – by far the lowest number in Kent – compared to 36 in Sevenoaks and 35 in Tonbridge & Malling.
On average, Kent’s five most deprived districts (Thanet, Swale, Folkestone & Hythe, Dover, and Gravesham) received £1,336,712 in bus subsidies, half (52%) the average £2,587,231 received by Kent’s five wealthiest areas (Maidstone, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, and Tonbridge & Malling).
Thanet is the 26th most deprived district area in England, while Tonbridge & Malling is the 63rd least deprived – yet Thanet received just 17% of the bus funding received by Tonbridge & Malling from KCC.
Polly said the figures showed the chaotic new Reform UK administration in Kent had failed to have any impact on the neglect of Kent’s coastal areas in favour of its upmarket towns.
The Labour government recently awarded Kent more than £70 million to improve bus services, but Polly said that new money would mean nothing to Thanet if the Reform council in Kent simply diverted it to the wealthiest areas.
She said:
“I am absolutely furious at what these shocking figures show — that the dire state of Thanet’s bus services is not inevitable, but the result of deliberate political choices by Kent County Council. How can it be fair that affluent areas like Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells scooped up millions in bus subsidies last year, while Thanet’s struggling communities were left with a pitiful half a million and change?
“Reform promised they would be different in Kent, yet every time I raise the collapse of Thanet’s bus services, I hear exactly the same excuses as when the Tories were in charge.
“These figures blow those excuses out of the water. Reform in Kent must end this bus funding rip-off and ensure Thanet gets its fair share of the government’s new funding for local bus services — starting with immediately reinstating the Number 9 to Canterbury.”
Cllr David Green, who represents Nethercourt Ward in Ramsgate on Thanet District Council, said:
“Nethercourt residents are fed up with expensive, unreliable bus services. It’s frankly outrageous to discover that while they’ve been left standing at bus stops in the cold, wealthier parts of Kent have been handed millions in subsidies at Thanet’s expense.
“I submitted this Freedom of Information request because I suspected Thanet was being short-changed, but the scale of unfairness is really shocking. Reform UK in Kent must take a long, hard look at themselves and act immediately to restore Ramsgate’s bus services, so my residents finally get the fair deal they deserve.”