Cllr Martin Tett, the Local Government Association’s Transport spokesman, responds to the Government’s announcement to change legislation to protect the free bus travel scheme.
“The free bus pass provides a vital service for our communities and a lifeline for our most vulnerable residents to go shopping, pick up medication, attend doctors appointments or socialise with friends. Councils know how important buses are for their residents and local economies and are desperate to protect them.
“However the Government needs to acknowledge the funding gap in the scheme and commit to fully fund the concessionary fares scheme. It is becoming impossible for councils to pay £200 million a year to subsidise the scheme while having to find billions of pounds worth of savings and protect other vital services like caring for the elderly, filling potholes and collecting bins. Faced with significant funding pressures, many across the country are being forced into taking difficult decisions to scale back services and review subsidised bus routes.
“The Government must fully fund the free bus pass scheme or the most isolated members of our community could find themselves with a bus pass but no bus to use it on.”