Yet an other story from the local paper. The council have managed to get an extra £590 000 out of the Government to pay for “free” bus travel for us over sixties. Central government can be generous when it wants to be. Shame it wasn’t generous on this occasion. Over half a million quid not generous I hear you ask. No, it’s mean, it’s also going to course a reduction in childrens services that are provided by the council and will in time bugger up our local bus services and lead to job losses in an area that has the an extremly high unemployment level as it is. The sum mentioned above is to go towards the cost of next years “free” bus travel. So this year we are still £2 million down.
I am sure Gordon Brown didn’t intend this mess when he came up with the idea of “free” bus travel but it does need sorting out before serious damage is done.
2 comments:
Of course your local authority needs more money when we from the midlands and north arrive for our holidays we use your buses. On the rare occasion that folk from the south west spend a holiday in Nottingham or Derby then you in turn use our buses but the numbers holidaying on the beautiful Devon coast far outnumber Devonians visiting us. In fact some local authorities in the two Counties are actually running at a surplus although I believe Derby City are asking for more.
In this weeks coach and bus I note that in Ireland the free passes ( which I believe cover both Ulster and Eire)is paid for in it's entirety by the respective Governments and not administered by local authorities.
Seniors get free buses here in NZ now. It's nice but I wouldn't mind paying a small charge if finances are tough, as they are now. - Dave
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