Council and Stagecoach meet over proposed Kendal bus cuts
The meeting followed concerns over proposed changes to several services in and around Kendal
Last updated 30th Sep 2026
Westmorland and Furness Council met with a bus company after it said it may cut a number of services.
Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire could cut the 445 service, remove the 46 service to be replaced by the 44 and reduce the timetable for the 43, 44 and 45 routes.
The decision has caused concern among residents who use the services and don’t have alternative transport, as well as councillors.
Independent Councillor Ali Jama of Upper Kent, which includes Burneside, Staveley, Ings and other small villages outside Kendal, raised concern about the changes at the full council meeting on September 24.
Cllr Jama asked if a meeting between Stagecoach and the cabinet member for transport could be organised, saying his ward residents would be ‘marginalised’ by the route cuts.
He said: “They have cut some hours from some buses and we know we cannot rely on the trains, so this is not fair for my constituents.
“So please if you could have a meeting with Stagecoach.”
Councillor Adrian Waite, cabinet member for environmental services and transport, confirmed he would be meeting with the company.
He said: “Several councillors and several members of the public have approached me and expressed their concern at the reduced levels of service that Stagecoach is proposing in Kendal.
“These are services that Stagecoach offers commercially, not those operating under contracts funded by the council, so we have no direct control over them.”
But he said the council had obligations to use ‘all its influence’ on Stagecoach and other bus operators to provide the best possible services.
He added: “Therefore the council has made clear to Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire that it has serious concerns about proposed reductions in Kendal, particularly the impacts on Burneside, Sandylands, Hallgarth and Oxenholme and for residents who rely on buses to access employment, education, healthcare and shopping.”
Cllr Waite said he wrote on September 18 to Tom Waterhouse, the managing director of the regional branch of Stagecoach.
In the letter, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he said that while the council recognised the financial challenges operators face, it had ‘significant concerns’.
He said as a result of this, a meeting had been arranged for September 28 for the council and Stagecoach to discuss the proposals.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting with the bus company, he said: “We explained the dissatisfaction amongst people in Kendal and particularly Burneside, whose services would be cut to five a day.
“It was a good-natured meeting, they explained why they were having to reduce bus services because of financial considerations and we explained the effects it would have on the community.”
Cllr Waite said Stagecoach told him they would ‘tweak’ the proposals in response to the consultation it held on the subject, but he said they didn’t explicitly say what tweaks will be made.
He said they also discussed broader issues in Kendal like traffic management and congestion, which affects the reliability of bus services and the ‘electrification of buses in the town’ which he said had been ‘approved in principle’.