Thursday, March 02, 2006
OAP free travel
A plea to David Miliband!
I would like to publicly ask David Miliband (our MP and Local Government and Communities Minister - and also a regular visitor to this page) to step in NOW and intervene in this unseemly row between The Treasury and Nexus over the financing of free travel for pensioners.
I feel fairly certain that when the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced the scheme last year, he did not envisage such a debacle. His officials ought to have had a reasonably good idea of the costs involved to the respective transport authorities, and therefore should have been able to supply sufficient funding to subsidise the scheme. It should not have befell any transport operator to fund the scheme from it's own revenue, and we should not be witnessing the unsavoury efforts to cut costs by reducing student transport services, cutting routes, or reducing public transport frequencies.
To add insult to injury, we learn today that another member of the government, Phil Woolas, is suggesting that the five local government authorities that make up the Tyne and Wear County find the cash between them to make up the five million pound shortfall. This is simply not on! Both he and the Chancellor need to be told in direct terms that local government in the North-East (and particularly South Tyneside) are very much strapped for cash to start with after the relatively small grant aid allocations announced for this financial year, and this is where David Miliband can use his influence on our behalf.
David has never been known as one to "rock the boat", his voting record suggests that he is probably the most loyal of Tony Blair's supporters, however, there are times when the coxswain needs to be taken to one side and have some home truths bellowed down his left ear!
It also should be mentioned that the Chancellor's scheme to provide free public transport for pensioners was not driven by demand, and many of our senior citizens are rather upset that this concession may cause hardship for a younger generation trying to educate themselves to provide the nation's future prosperity. There are many, many pensioners who would rather pay a flat rate fee for public transport, than use it for free.
Pensioners may not be entirely happy that this free public transport initiative is being forced upon them, but they are more angry that the costs of the venture are being forced upon others!
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