A SCHEME to give pensioners free bus travel across East Lancashire has been held up because a council is refusing to begin talks.

Blackburn with Darwen Council had hoped to better a government scheme to offer all pensioners free travel within their own borough by extending it to journeys within East Lancashire.

Similar schemes operate in Greater Manchester and Tyne and Wear, enabling pensioners to cross council boundaries without losing their right to a free fare.

But while Hyndburn Council and Chorley Council have agreed to talks about the proposal, Ribble Valley Council has not yet signed up.

Bolton Council has already agreed so, from April, pensioners in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen will be able to travel for free throughout the two boroughs.

Ribble Valley said it could join in the future, but was waiting to see if the government scheme to offer all pensioners free travel within their own borough was successful first.

If that remained the position, pensioners would pay half fare for the part of their journey which was outside the borough they lived in. Blackburn with Darwen Council is putting up £700,000, on top of Government grants, to pay for its free bus travel for pensioners and the disabled.

The scheme, which will give unlimited travel to anywhere in the borough, will begin on April 1 and operate Monday to Friday, from 9.30am to 11pm, and all day Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays.

The council estimates 27,000 older people, and more than 3,500 disabled people, will be eligible.

Marshal Scott, Ribble Valley Council's director of resources, said: "It has been agreed that the new concessionary travel system will be applied in the same way across the whole county and it seems a little premature to change that arrangement."