TORY BUS CUTS STOP PATIENT VISITING ON SUNDAYS

10.30.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 29th Apr 2008

Commenting on the news that Metrobus is to cut its number 87 bus route that links the PRH, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton , Serena Tierney, Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Mid Sussex, said:

"These cuts will be a big blow to patients. Cutting the Sunday service is particularly cruel when the rail services between Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and Brighton are so often suspended on Sunday for engineering works. There will effectively be no public transport links on Sundays - the day that least happens in hospital and patients can be very lonely. It is also often the best day for visitors to go as they are not at work.

"The hospital trust said when it moved more services to Brighton from the PRH that it was not in control of the bus service but that it would use its influence with the county council. Now the Tory-run council has cut the money for this lifeline bus service. I shall be writing to the trust to ask it to put pressure on the council to reinstate the funding for this service."

Local Liberal Democrat campaigners will be collecting signatures on a petition calling on the council to reinstate the funding. We will be at the bus stops with petitions on Saturday and Sunday.

You can sign our online petition by following this link: http://www.midsussexlibdems.org.uk/petitions/3.html

[You will need to register your details with this site in order to sign the petition.]