We can’t please everyone…

Here’s a call to the few who are attempting to sabotage our campaign… “Please stop as its so important to many other local residents and causes unnecessary stress for our volunteers!”

Hello. Im one of the ‘volunteers’ from the Buses in Fleet group. Despite the many supporters and positive feedback so far received, we have recently had some of our campaign posts removed or banned from a couple of Facebook groups as a result of just a couple of complaints from people who are not in support of our campaign efforts.

As many will already know - We’re not a business and we’re not trying to sell, scam or spam anyone. We are just a small group of volunteers who are giving up our free time to help campaign for improvements to our local bus services.

We understand that our campaigns are not supported by everyone. Although we are NOT an anti-car user group, some of our volunteers fear conflict and confrontation from a few individuals who have so far been successful with stopping our campaign from being shared within a couple of other local Facebook groups. Its a just a pity that these actions from a few have managed to silence the voices of so many!

We do not exist to create a war-zone with people who hate buses, we’re just here to campaign for improved bus services for the people who want or need them. So far more than 1,600 residents have positively responded to our campaign, through our Facebook posts, but we still have a lot more work to do.

We campaign with a budget of £0. Yes, thats right absolutely nothing! We do not receive any financial help. At the moment we have been using Facebook and the help from supporting groups and their followers to help us post, share and respond to our campaign. So far the campaign has been and continues to be, for the time being, very successful.

Some of our supporters include, a Facebook group with more than 800 followers, 16 other Facebook groups, local residents and a number of councillors from all parties. We are also known by Fleet, Yateley Town and Hampshire County Councils and we really appreciate the support.

We regularly need to post news about our campaign as we need to reach a total of 3,600 responses by the end of August. So far it’s working and we are succeeding. Unfortunately, if we are stopped in our tracks; we will no longer be noticed, all the positive and supporting responses will stop, we will not be successful and change will never happen. Sadly our volunteer efforts will also be wasted.

Maybe there will come a time when, those who have actively tried to stop our campaign, will be confined to their homes and wishing that they could have an alternative means of transport because they can no longer drive. Were also giving up our volunteer time to help them too!

We understand that we can’t please everyone. Our campaign was never created with the intention to cause any harm or offence. However, If you still find our campaign to improve our local bus services offensive, please just consider scrolling to the next post and allow other residents the chance to take part with our campaign.

Whilst these attempted acts of sabotage continue, I am appealing to all the other supporting local residents to continue spreading the news about our campaign to give it a real fighting chance of success, whilst we still can!

However, if your finding it difficult to share our posts within certain Facebook groups, this could likely mean we have sadly been banned.

Therefore, If you have any other ideas of alternative methods to help us spread the news, please let us know. Your offers of help will be much appreciated.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us during our campaign to help put your feedback to good use and help build a better bus future for our and neighbouring communities.

Thank You

Steven Caulston
Buses in Fleet Volunteer