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Leader defends scrapping of free early bus travel

11:33am Monday 3rd March 2008

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THE leader of Darlington Borough Council has defended a decision to scrap free early morning bus travel for the over-60s.

Thousands of town residents have put their name to petitions against the move, which will see pensioners denied concessions offered to senior citizens elsewhere in the country.

However, Councillor John Williams said the policy will not be changed.

Disabled people and the over- 60s will be entitled to free local bus travel nationwide under Government policy introduced on April 1, but in Darlington, travellers will have to pay for any journeys made before 9.30am.

In a letter to Conservative councillors Gill and Mike Cartwright - who collected signatures for one of the petitions - Coun Williams described the decision as "difficult", but said the cuts were necessary to "balance different needs" in the budget.

"The opportunity, newly introduced this year, for Darlington people to travel outside Darlington using the bus pass, is something many people have looked for and welcome," he said.

"The Government has allocated an additional £250m per year to fund the new national bus concession in England. The Department for Transport proposes that Darlington's share of this funding is £482,000.

"However, it is unlikely that this will cover the increased costs of operating the scheme and the council will use its own revenue to fund the shortfall.

"I appreciate that ideally free travel before 9.30am would have been provided but, in balancing this with other demands on the budget, we felt that many of those who currently travel before 9.30am have the opportunity to travel at different times."

Coun Williams said a Talking Together discussion evening will be arranged so residents can raise concerns with the council.

Darlington Pensioners' Forum collected more than 1,400 signatures against the plan. Another petition, of 300 names, was handed to the council by Harrowgate Hill councillor Gill Cartwright.

Councillor Cartwright said: "We are disappointed that the cabinet has chosen not to review this important decision which clearly many residents are unhappy with.

"Whatever happened to the pledge by the council to listen to residents? Residents have spoken and been ignored again."

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Your Say YourThe Northern Echo

George, Darlington says...
5:03pm Mon 3 Mar 08

Shame on the Council, so if my Grandmother needs to attend the doctors or a hospital appointment on the morning, she has to pay full fare, not very considerate is it?

Wekk dine to Durham County Council who are looking after their pensioners and allowing them to travel before 9.30

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michelle, darlington says...
8:45pm Mon 3 Mar 08

most older people get up early.so they do th
ere shopping

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Anon, says...
9:35pm Mon 3 Mar 08

I guess the buses must be crammed full of pensioners who are stopping paying customers from using them are they? Somehow I seriously doubt that. Shame on you Coun. Williams.

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Rosemary, Darlington says...
7:18am Tue 4 Mar 08

I guess that the learned councilor does not have a bus pass but either has a car (does he pay for his parking) or is driven to his meetings - and they will not be before 9.30 am. I just think that it is a move by the councillors to not again listen to some of the people that voted for them.

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harry, darlington says...
7:39am Tue 4 Mar 08

just to play devils advocate here, i do use the bus and between 8am and 9.30 the bus is always full to busting. i use the 23 which is the only bus going my way and it is a small bus supposed to come something like every 15 mins i think but due to traffic congestion it can be be longer.
the bus at these times is full with people going to work or kids going to school, places where people have to be,
so is it really so bad that one section of the community are given a incentive to travel outside these hours.

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Ann, Darlington says...
9:05am Tue 4 Mar 08

"I guess the buses must be crammed full of pensioners who are stopping paying customers from using them are they? Somehow I seriously doubt that."

Exactly, so why pay for a service which is not getting used or required by the majority of elderly people.

During this debate people complaining have used a couple of excuses such as hospital appointments or the working elderly. The subject of doctors or hospital appointments have already been raised by the local NHS board who have stated that this would be taken into account when these appointments. Regarding the working elderly, and I'm talking about the one's who have not taken retirement but are entitled to a bus pass because they are 60, I do not see it as being unreasonable to expect them to pay for their own bus travel. As for the elderly who do charity work there should be a system in place where the charity pays for your travel and they can claim it back from the local council / government.

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dave adams, Darlington says...
10:05am Tue 4 Mar 08

The post on this site; (http:www.harrowgate
hill.co.uk/) makes interesting reading.

"Whilst... more than 30 other councils are planning to cut services, including meals on wheels, or raise council tax as a result of the introduction of the nationwide free bus scheme, here in Darlington, where our council has managed to introduce the new service without cutting other services, some folk are complaining about not being able to travel before 9:30am.

* Worthing Borough Council is cutting funds for a swimming pool and plants and flowers in parks, and raising charges for beach huts.

* Portsmouth City Council has cut five librarians and funding for the local Rape Crisis Centre.

* Councils in Weymouth and Chester are planning to raise council tax by 7 per cent.

As it stands, the Department of Transport already spends £800 million funding free travel for those aged 60 and over, and as of the 1st April the total cost to the taxpayer of providing free nationwide bus travel for the elderly and disabled will reach £1 billion.

Some bus companies are putting in bills that give them the highest possible return and appear to be profiting from the bus passes... even though the Government had said that they should be reimbursed only for their extra costs."

And makes me think -we're not so hard done to... are we!

Dave

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merryn gibson, darlo says...
2:41pm Tue 4 Mar 08

in reality the council are putting a curew on the elderly because if thousands of pensioners die every year because they cant afford to heat their homes it not very likely they can afford to pay for travel is it? what costs the council tax payer more? - bus passes for pensioners, or perhaps teenagers vandalising public property and stealing at every oppertunity? i know who really need to be on curefw!!!

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Chris, Darlington says...
2:05am Mon 17 Mar 08

In response to Ann's comment:

"...so why pay for a service which is not getting used or required by the majority of elderly people."

It has been mentioned elsewhere that the council will only be paying for what is used (ie, when the bus driver produces the ticket, its logged and a bill submitted based on this). So all that is going to happen is the people with the passes (myself included as a disabled resident) are going to end up using later buses, or have to pay for the privelidge of having somewhere to be at that time.

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Newshound, Basingstoke says...
8:10am Sat 29 Mar 08

This system is about to be introduced in my town, but our local Tory Council has kept the before 9.30 element in the local borough.

http://www.doughnut-
city.co.uk/forum/vie
wtopic.php?f=23&t=86

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