FROM: Councillor Alan Cottam, Executive Member for Regeneration, to all residents of the borough over the age of 60 years, who may or may not use bus passes I start off by saying that I am on the wrong side of three score years and ten and firmly in the ranks of the older persons group.

Secondly, I do not wish to do away with the free travel for over 60s, but it does need to be managed. My job is to manage it and get the best value for money for all users or potential users.

People writing to complain about what I said, or did not say, need to hear it from the horse’s mouth rather than from speculation.

Immediately prior to the last General Election and 12 months before it would apply, Gordon Brown, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that all residents above 60 years and those classed as disabled, would be able to use local buses throughout the nation, free of charge, with the cost being picked up by central government, via local authorities.

What he didn’t say was that he would only give local authorities about half of what it would cost and that any excess would be borne by the council tax payer in the borough in which the bus journey started.

The total allocation for the entire nation (England) was to be £212million per annum and within that figure Blackburn with Darwen would get £492,000.

We have just over 24,000 residents over the age of 60 and they would get a discount from the bus operators of one quarter, or we could have four trips for the price of three.

On the basis that the bus was going to its destination anyway, four extra pensioners paying the price of three full fare paying passengers would allow more older people to get about to shops, doctors, hospital, visit relatives and friends etc.

So far so good, a welcome initiative, for which the Government take full credit. In reality, the cost is running a massive £391,000 over budget for this current year and as things stand at the moment, for me to balance my budget, I have to make savings elsewhere within my portfolio. That means cutting services or charging extra to the council-tax payer, as if they do not pay enough.

We are short funded by roughly equivalent to one percent on the total council tax paid by every house in the borough. I will stop short of asking the PM to increase funding until I am convinced that we can’t manage with what he has seen fit to allocate.

Clearly, he never intended for people to use the bus as a community centre, or to take a journey in the wrong direction just to be assured of a seat on the bus going to your desired destination.

The example I used was someone from way outside our area using five different bus journeys out of her 10 journeys during the day, which will be charged to Blackburn with Darwen BC.

Nor did he intend for people to travel somewhere different each day of the week, complete with flask and sandwiches.

Please use the service as you would do had you been paying for it yourself, rest assured someone is paying for it.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

COUNCILLOR ALAN COTTAM, Executive Member for Regeneration and Environment.