A Lancaster County Councillor has described the decision to scrap two subsidised travel schemes as ‘appalling’.
The £1 fare before 9:30 am for those with the disabled persons NoWcard will end in April, and free bus travel for young people who are not in education, employment or training will end from July, following a decision by the Conservative led Lancashire County Council last week.
The scrapping of these schemes will save the council around £394,000.
But Erica Lewis, County Councillor for Lancaster South East, said that decision would be overturned, should Labour win the next local election in May.
Cllr Lewis said: ‘’ This was an appalling decision, and one Labour opposed, and will overturn as if we have the votes to after May’s election.
‘’I’ve been highlighting the inadequacy of the council’s capacity for equality impact analysis and I am making progress. The briefing paper on this decision did note that this decision was of no benefit to anyone.
‘’Responses to the consultation were overwhelmingly opposed and it’s easy to see why as the decision undermines just about everything else the council claims it is working towards by making it harder to get out of the house to medical appointments, jobs, school, the DWP, anywhere really.
‘’I’ve asked to see the institutional responses to the consultation. I’m worried I’ll discover that the NHS and the DWP got the same consultation form we did and that there weren’t any proper conversations about saving the service.
‘’It’s just a bad decision.’’
There are around 10,000 NoWcards in circulation and the consultation over the cut to the service saw 510 people take part, with 81% of them disagreeing with the move.
The free young person's travel scheme is used by an average of 139 apprentices a month, alongside 35 people eligible for other reasons.
County Cllr Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "Local authorities across the country are facing considerable financial challenges and uncertainty and we have to make difficult decisions to maintain financial sustainability and resilience.
“The proposals to end the additional discretionary concession for holders of a disabled person’s NoWcard will not affect the core offer.’’
The leader of the Labour group on the council, Matthew Tomlinson, said: "This quite cruel decision actually costs the county council such a tiny amount of money, we think it's the wrong decision."
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