The Sevenoaks Town Partnership Vintage Bus Service and the Sevenoaks Route 8 Bus Service were awarded top prize in the inaugural competition at a ‘Transport Planning Day’ event in London last night.

This came after the award’s organiser the Transport Planning Society invited communities from across the UK to nominate projects that have put local engagement at the forefront of planning and delivery.

Sevenoaks’ vintage bus service is a partnership between the town council and the local community and has contributed to a boom in summer visitor numbers since its launch in 2011. Local residents also use the bus route often instead of travelling by car, and older people say it allows them to visit the town independently.

Meanwhile the introduction of the Route 8 bus service, an orbital route linking Sevenoaks town centre to residential areas, has seen the town council providing free bus travel to those aged 11 to 18. The service attracts nearly 500 passengers per week.

Judges also praised as ‘highly commended’ the Loch Earn Railway Path, a previously non existent off road link between Comrie and St Fillans in Perthshire which now gives locals and visitors the option to travel actively between the villages.

Other finalists included a cycle centres initiative in Broxtowe, the Hackney community ‘Parklet’ scheme and Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull bicycle user group.

Transport Planning Society chair Lynda Addison commented: “Fundamentally, it is community involvement that makes good transport planning. In fact, delivering exemplary community engagement will make a good scheme great.

 “These winners have made a genuine contribution to improving people’s accessibility, quality of life and wellbeing and have made such a huge difference to their local communities.”

 Chair of the judges panel Stephen Joseph said: “Each nomination demonstrated that schemes, such as the eventual winners in Sevenoaks, that had been developed with the community had made a positive impact both to the local economy and to residents’ quality of life. This is incredibly important at a time when we must encourage a move away from car dependency.”