City Council supports better bus pass scheme

11.00.00am GMT Tue 23rd May 2006

Cambridge City Council has responded to a motion due to be debated in Council on Thursday about Government's flawed concessionary bus fare scheme.

City Councillor Sian Reid commented:

"The City Council has contributed maximum financial support to the concessionary bus fare scheme; all its over 60 residents, and the disabled, have free travel after 9.30 including on Park and Ride buses.

"We have been eager to fund free cross border trips but are constrained without bus operator support. The bus operators have refused to implement a partial cross border scheme due to its administrative inconvenience.

"From the very beginning we have consistently urged the District Councils and the County for an inclusive county wide scheme and have been dismayed that the Government funding mechanism has left some districts with insufficient funding for this scheme.

"We very much regret the negative impact of the scheme on visitors to the City such as those wishing to visit Addenbrooke's or those without cars living in nearby villages. We are also very concerned that only City residents gain free travel on Park and Ride buses, thus encouraging them to use their cars to enter the City.

"We are still waiting for the first twelve weeks' usage figures from the County but we are concerned that the Government's hasty and ill conceived scheme may have an impact which is the opposite to our policy, and discourage bus usage.

"We fully support the County's efforts to continue to work on the scheme, have talked to them and have been at their disposal for talks at any time. We await further ideas from them in a fortnight."