8:06am Monday 9th November 2009
By Juliette Astrup
SO-CALLED ‘free’ bus travel for the over-60s is costing Dorset taxpayers millions of pounds – and is set to get worse.
Bournemouth council taxpayers will fork out £3.7m to subsidise the government’s concessionary bus fare scheme this year.
Other councils are also having to raid their coffers for hundreds of thousands every year to do the same.
But instead of getting more cash to cover the shortfall, Dorset councils look set to be dealt a hammer-blow by a Department for Transport consultation, which proposes thousands more are slashed from their budgets next year.
Purbeck has warned other services could suffer, and Christchurch has revealed the shortfall is costing the average council taxpayer £22 a year.
The proposed cuts relate to a government review of the extra grants it made available to fund the extension of the free bus travel scheme in April last year – allowing over-60s to travel on buses anywhere in the country for free.
According to the consultation document, East Dorset and North Dorset district councils could lose £100,000 each from their 2010-11 budgets, while Purbeck would be down £110,000.
Whilst Christchurch and Poole will not see any change, both claim the travel schemes are so badly under-funded that overall shortfalls will be massive. Only Bournemouth is set to benefit, with a proposed additional £70,000 of funding – a drop in the ocean compared to the shortfall.
Cllr John Beesley, cabinet member for resources, said the announcement showed the funding mechanism was failing and Bournemouth taxpayers were shelling out for “the high level of visitors” taking advantage of the scheme in the town.
“This year council tax payers will pick up £3.7 million of the bill with it only costing the government £1.2 million of the total,” he said.
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