Wheels in motion for free bus travel cuts

People aged over 60 and the disabled had enjoyed free travel outside the national scheme – which runs between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, and all day at weekends and bank holidays – because of a council subsidy.

The city council said it would withdraw the concession at the end of the year, a move expected to save about 600,000 a year.

A council spokeswoman said: "As part of a review of the council's policies there will be a change to the council's concessionary fare scheme.

"People with concessionary bus passes will be able to use them after 9.30am, not before, on Mondays to Fridays.

"We will be introducing this change in January 2011. People will still be able to use them at any time over the weekend and throughout England."

A report by Trish Dalby, the council's head of streetscene services, said there was little alternative other than to withdraw the scheme because of funding pressures.

It said: "Although the rationale for the discretionary element, drawing as it does on factors like the relatively low incidence of car ownership in the city, has often been debated in the past, the financial constraints now incumbent on the council are such that a fundamental reappraisal of the relevant benefits and costs of the discretionary scheme is essential.

"With the current pressure on resources, it is difficult to envisage that the conclusion of any such review can be anything other than the complete cessation of the discretionary element."

However, Labour group leader at the council, Coun Steve Brady, said he opposed the cut and warned the council to expect "a public backlash".