Stagecoach is preparing to extend the B-line into Finberry in 2027, once two stretches of road are adopted and ANPR cameras go up on the link road.

Finberry could get its first bus service in 2027. A report going to Ashford’s Joint Transportation Board next Tuesday says Stagecoach is now prepared to plan for extending its existing B-line service into the estate, possibly in the early part of the year.

That is the firmest date the board has been given. It is also conditional, and the conditions are the ones that have held the service up for years. Two stretches of road still have to be adopted by Kent County Council. Cameras have to go up on the link road between Finberry and Bridgefield.

The report is by Roland Mills, Ashford Borough Council’s Head of Development Management and Enforcement. It is for information only, and the board is asked simply to note it.

What has moved since June

The board last heard about Finberry on 2 June, when it was told an all-parties adoption strategy meeting was being arranged. That meeting happened in June. It brought together the Finberry team, meaning the Church Commissioners, their developer Crest Nicholson and their consultants, alongside the Bridgefield consortium represented by Taylor Wimpey, Kent County Council’s highways agreements team and the borough council.

Two things followed. The Finberry team met Stagecoach to set out where matters stood. Then all the parties walked the route together on 18 August.

That walkover settled where the stops go.

Timeline of the Finberry bus route, from the June 2026 adoption strategy meeting through the 18 August site walkover, the 1 September board meeting, road works at the end of 2026, the 31 March 2027 deadline for spending DfT money on cameras, and a possible bus service in 2027
The sequence the council's report sets out. Each step depends on the one before it.

Where the stops would be

At Finberry there would be three, in the locations already approved on the masterplan under application reference 15/01586/AS:

  • on the eastern side of Avocet Way, close to the local centre proposed for the opposite side of the street
  • by the play area on the western side of Avocet Way, which the car-free street running east to west through Finberry leads towards
  • on the eastern side of Avocet Way opposite Finberry Primary School, near the site of a future sports and community facility

At Bridgefield there would be two, at the southern end of Damara Way, approved at reserved matters stage under reference 09/01315/AS. The walkover changed the detail there. Everyone agreed the approved positions still work, but that a bus stopping at Damara Way could conflict with the Finn Farm Road junction.

The agreement reached was that only one shelter is needed, on the southern side of Damara Way, with a second stop provided further west as a pole without a shelter. That lets a bus heading east over the signalised Accommodation Bridge stop clear of the signals, on the southern side of the local park. Some existing landscaping will have to be removed. The report raises no planning objection to either change.

One line in the report is worth noting for the longer term: bus shelter maintenance “will ultimately become an ABC maintenance issue before local government reorganisation”. Ashford Borough Council was due to be abolished on 1 April 2028, with its services passing to a new Mid Kent Council, but ministers paused that plan on 7 September 2026 (our report).

What is still in the way

Road adoption at Finberry. South of the entrance roundabout, Crest Nicholson’s first tranche of roads is at final snagging under the section 38 process in the Highways Act 1980, and close to being finalised. That clears the way for a second tranche, which would take in Avocet Way from the entrance roundabout south to the Finberry boundary. Before that can happen, Avocet Way needs its final wearing course laid, and Crest has to appoint contractors. Crest indicated at the walkover that the end of 2026, or very early 2027, is realistic.

Road adoption at Bridgefield. South of the Finberry boundary, the link road is Taylor Wimpey’s responsibility. It has draft adoption agreements with Kent County Council, but the report describes “a lengthy dispute between the parties preventing finalisation of adoption due to streetlighting specification”. The report says there is now momentum towards resolving it. In June the board was told the borough council’s legal service was reviewing the relevant section 106 agreements, and that court action was a last resort.

Cameras on the link road. The link road is not open to general traffic. Its carriageway is blocked at both ends to stop misuse, though the footway and cycleway along it are open and, the report says, well used. For buses to run through, that restriction has to be enforced, and the solution both councils accept is automatic number plate recognition. A camera on a new pole is needed at the Finberry end; at the Bridgefield end an existing streetlight is expected to take one.

The money for that is the tightest constraint in the report. Department for Transport funding is available to Kent County Council to install the cameras, but it has to be spent before 31 March 2027. Kent would install the cameras and finalise any traffic order.

What it means for you

If you live at Finberry, nothing changes this year. The realistic sequence is Avocet Way surfaced and adopted around the turn of the year, the Bridgefield lighting dispute settled, cameras installed before the end of March 2027, and then a bus. The report’s own wording is careful: Stagecoach “appeared to be comfortable with planning for introduction of a service”, which is not the same as a service being registered.

If you want to say something about it, you can. The notice of the meeting sets out the council’s public participation scheme. Under Procedure Rule 9, members of the public may submit a petition, ask a question or speak on any item on the agenda. The meeting starts at 7pm on Tuesday 1 September in the Council Chamber on level 2 of International House, Dover Place, TN23 1HU. Democratic Services handle the arrangements on 01233 330349 or democraticservices@ashford.gov.uk. Ask them about the deadline for registering before you turn up, because the council sets one for each committee.

Beyond 2027, the report points at two things that could change the route again. Policy S15 of the Ashford Local Plan 2030 allocates land west of the proposed Finberry local centre for further development. A new bridge over the East Stour is also planned, connecting Finberry with Waterbrook Park, where homes in the southern part of the site have been resolved for permission. Either could give Stagecoach a reason to adapt or add services. The report is clear that is further into the future.

Also before the board on 1 September

The bus route is item 9 on a short agenda. Also listed:

  • Border traffic management, a verbal update from Kent County Council’s Toby Howe. In June the board was told Operation Brock held up to 1,200 lorries over the May bank holiday and was expected to run from mid-July to the end of August.
  • HGV enforcement, the annual report on the overnight clamping scheme. It records 725 vehicles clamped between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, down from 875 the year before and 990 the year before that. The zonal ban runs from 8pm to 7am along the A20 between Charing and Ashford and across Orbital Park, Ashford Business Park, Sevington and the Ellingham and Wotton industrial estates. Nine appeals have been made since enforcement began and three penalty notices were cancelled. Ashford Truck Stop reports it is at or close to full most nights.
  • Parking and waiting restrictions. Free parking for electric vehicles while charging at Vicarage Lane car park was due to end on 19 August and has been extended by a month while six months of data is analysed. Parking changes at Ellingham Industrial Estate went in at the start of August. They added space for 15 more vehicles and removed 29 abandoned ones. A limited number of bays there are available to businesses at £360 a year. A traffic order in Pluckley, made with the parish council, brought in parking bays, school zig-zag markings and extra waiting restrictions from 14 August.
  • Highway works programme, the standing Kent County Council update. For what is closed now, see our Ashford roadworks and travel page.

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