Monday 1 February 2010

The Government Have Come Up With The Cash

It has been announced that Torbay will receive and extra £580,000 towards the cost of Concessionary Bus Passes. This is not enough to cover the expected £800,000 shortfall that the Bay would have been facing had this extra grant not been paid. I will feel slightly less embarrassed now when I get on a number 12 bus in Fleet Street and go down to the Harbour.

This does raise the question of previous years when the council had to subsidise the scheme by over half a million pounds each year. Not what Gordon Brown promised (no winners, no losers) when he set the scheme up but then he is a politician.

Here is a short quote from the Herald Express.

The £600,000 grant goes a long way to alleviating the burden on Bay taxpayers, but mayor Nick Bye said there will still be funds to be found. He added: "Torbay Council has lobbied very hard and very effectively because, of all the councils, we are aware we seem to have experienced the greatest shortfall.
"This does not quite plug the gap and does nothing for this financial year, or last year. It does make life quite a bit easier for the budget in 2010/11.
"We support the scheme and think it's really good and improving the quality of life of older people and disabled people in the Bay."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

£580,000. Is that all?! Some councils (i.e Isle of Wight) are in the millions (and yes, the bus services have been cut as a result!)

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Anonymous said...

Councils should be on their guard for more underfunded political bribes in the run up to the election. National politicians pick up the votes, while the councils pick up the bills.

retired driver Peter said...

At least one Council in Derbyshire is in surplus -spending less than the amount the government gave them. I believe that in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that the funding is from central government directly to the bus companies and therefore no local authorities have this burden, nor do there seem to be the arguments we get in England. it is obvious that areas such as the Isle of Wight and Devon with a large influx of holidaymakers have to under the present system pay for a lot of journeys made by non residents of the area whilst an industrial area or a rural area in the north of the country probably has very few to pay for except their own residents and an area such as my own patch where there is a choice of shopping areas either side ofthe ccounty boundaries probably equalises the outlay.

David said...

I agree with you Pete. The whole thing should be dealt with in Whitehall and leave our council to get on with running the town, not arguing with Stagecoach about money.

bouncertqy said...

Hi All

The grant will make me less embarressed to but we have got to face "Personak Care for the Elderly".

Like the Bus Pass "Good in Principle but unaffordable in Practice!

Lord Hutton said...

The Council have been cleared by Audit of overpaying so Great, A Good Thing