A HORNDON resident has reacted with anger after the decision to save the 374 bus has meant a new route that excludes Horndon.
Mr Mike Tabard is one of Thurrock’s real community champions but he is clearly very vexed at the recent decision.
Mr Tabard said:
"I do not normally play the political line, leaving that to the elected members of Thurrock Council, but what an amazing display of political trickery performed by Councillor Gerrish just before the local elections.
"This, on top of the apparent saving of the libraries (but no small print issued yet), he hopes will go a long way to restore the electorates view of the ruling Labour party on Thurrock Council and possibly will fend off the UKIP vote.
"Councillor Gerrish clearly has no interest in the residents of either Horndon-on-the-Hill or Fobbing and is quite happy to see them fester and become totally isolated.
"He continues, though, to keep his ward residents happy in the knowledge that the 11 service is saved – but has he told them that it will implode in March 2016 when the budget is reduced to zero? Or is he going to perform yet another conjuring trick this time next year?
"It is outrageous that the Council is going to allow the proposed 12 service to happen when that area is already largely served by the 11 route. What about the residents of Horndon-on-the-Hill or Fobbing? Councillor Gerrish is not bothered about them because both are Conservative Wards and are unlikely to change.
The best thing that can happen is that the ruling Labour group be ousted at the forthcoming local elections and sense prevail as well the new rulers looking ‘outside the box’ to see that other options can and should be considered.
I see that Councillor Gerrish is proud to say that he has saved the Council around £220k by axing Orsett Hospital, Horndon-on-the-Hill and Fobbing from the 374 route. I cannot believe that these parts of the route would build up a loss of £220k or thereabouts for a full year and I would be interested to see the figures in support of this figure.
Gentlemen – this is a very sad day for the residents of Horndon-on-the-Hill and Fobbing and I sincerely hope that they will all show Thurrock Council what their view of them is probably lower than the Council’s view of the residents.
