LEAKED emails to the Gazette have revealed Thurrock Council’s Labour leader John Kent went against advice from senior council staff urging the 374 bus route should stay.

The email exchanges reveal the decisions that took place in the run-up to the cutting of the council-subsidised 374 bus service, which connects Grays and Basildon, while the 11, which serves Aveley and Ockendon, was saved.

The news may put the brakes on a possible council U-turn on the 374 after residents spoke out at a recent scrutiny meeting about how badly the decision had affected their quality of life .

Campaigners have been fighting to get the route back after its cut left elderly pensioners in Fobbing stranded and facing a three-mile walk to the shops and nearest bus stop .

In the leaked email exchange , which took place earlier this year, interim chief executive David Bull advised Councillor Oliver Gerrish: “I would want to persuade yo u to keep the 374 and not the 11.

“If you cut the 374, lots of people will be cut off without services by bus. The 374 is better value for money and helps more people.”

He added that the route served 80,000 to 90,000 people a year.

Labour councillor Oliver Gerrish, who is in charge of transport, wrote to Mr Kent: “John – there would seem to be me to be a very strong reason to dip into reserves on this occasion?

“If we don’t, we may find parts of the borough without a decent bus service and I a m passionate about avoiding that.”

Mr Kent replied: “It is difficult to see how one year’s use of reserves would help an y subsidised bus next year.”

He added: “I don’t think subsidising a bus route for one year, with little suggestion of how it will be sustainable after that time, isasound use of our reserves.”

Fobbing councillor Deborah Stewart responded with fury to the leaked exchange .

She said: “I’m feeling very frustrated with this issue because I don’t understand the reasoning. We had expert officers saying we need to keep the 374 because of access to health centres .

“If they’d cut the 11, people might have had to change buses, but they wouldn’t have needed to walk three miles. I t was the wrong decision to make.”

In response to the criticism, Mr Kent said: “Government expects bus services to be commercially viable based on demand and not subsidy.

“If not enough passengers travel on a particular route , then that route closes. That’ s the commercial reality.”