Maidstone Council asks girls aged 13 to 18 how safe they feel on buses

Maidstone Borough Council is collecting anonymous feedback from girls aged 13 to 18 about their experiences travelling by bus, saying the results will help improve safety measures.

Girls who catch buses around Maidstone are being asked to share their experiences in a short survey posted by the council this week. The appeal, aimed squarely at those aged 13 to 18, asks how safe young women feel during their journeys — whether that’s the ride itself, waiting at a stop, or travelling after dark.

The case for gathering this kind of feedback is real. Research by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK found that 72% of transport organisations do not currently measure how women and girls feel about security on buses, and 88% have no live reporting mechanism in place for safety incidents. A focused local survey could surface concerns that never make it into police records or operator complaint logs — particularly if girls feel more comfortable responding anonymously online than reporting an incident in person.

But the survey has limits worth knowing about.

The council’s social-media appeal doesn’t say which bus routes, stops or times of day prompted the exercise, nor does it name any bus operator or partner organisation involved. There’s no published closing date, no explanation of how the data will be stored, and no detail on what changes — to routes, staffing, CCTV or waiting areas — might actually follow. Without that kind of route-level or time-specific information, critics of such exercises argue it can be hard to turn survey findings into concrete action.

There are also questions about who the survey might miss. Restricting responses to girls aged 13 to 18 means boys, younger children, older passengers and gender-diverse travellers won’t be captured in this exercise — groups who may have their own safety concerns on Maidstone’s buses. And a voluntary online survey may not reach girls without reliable internet access or those who aren’t active on social media, potentially skewing the results toward those easiest to contact.

According to Maidstone Borough Council, the feedback will be used to inform improvements to safety measures, though no specific report, timetable or decision-making process has been published alongside the appeal. The survey appears to be an evidence-gathering exercise at this stage — not a confirmed consultation on any specific route or infrastructure change.

The council ran a separate youth safety survey previously, targeting young people aged 11 to 18 across several settings including online spaces and local communities; that exercise fed into the council’s Community Safety Plan and is a different piece of work to this bus-focused appeal.

The survey is open to girls aged 13 to 18 who travel by bus in Maidstone — the council’s post does not specify whether respondents need to live within the borough or attend a particular school.

Key information

• Who can take part: Girls aged 13–18 who travel by bus in Maidstone
• How to find it: Via Maidstone Borough Council’s official social-media channels (@maidstonebc)
• Closing date: Not confirmed in the council’s published appeal — check the council’s website or social media for updates
• What happens next: The council says responses will inform safety improvements, but no report publication date or decision timeline has been announced