30 November 2010
For immediate release
Rural communities face being hardest hit by
changes to concessionary bus fare scheme
Rural people will be hard hit by plans to change the way bus operators are reimbursed for allowing over-60s to travel free.
Government proposals to change the concessionary fares scheme will unfairly impact on rural communities, believes the Rural Services Network[1].
Rural bus operators will be forced to reduce services and increase fares in response to reduced reimbursements, the network has warned[2].
Planned changes to the scheme would reduce the reimbursement paid to bus operators in England by between £67m and £130m.
The cut in reimbursement would vary between about 15% and 45%, depending on the nature of the bus operator and the routes it runs.
Graham Biggs, Chief Executive of the Rural Services Network, said: "The government has failed to address the real impact of these changes to the scheme."
He added: "The impact of the changes will, we consider, be greatest in shire counties and there is likely to be a significant adverse impact on the operation of services in rural areas."
Mr Biggs said it appeared that many of the government's assumptions were based on research carried out in urban areas.
This meant the impact of proposed changes to reimbursements did not adequately reflect the likely adverse outcome in rural areas[3].
Proposals to reduce reimbursements more on higher fares, for example, would hit longer rural bus routes harder than the shorter routes found in urban areas.
Bus operators had raised "serious concerns" about the impact of the proposals on the future provision of bus services in rural areas, said Mr Biggs.
Given their own financial constraints, it was unlikely local authorities would offer contracts to replace services withdrawn due to reimbursement changes.
"The damaging effects of the proposals will be very unlikely to be offset locally," said Mr Biggs.
"Once bus route are lost they will be very difficult – perhaps impossible- to restore if in the future finances improve."
Access to the services on which rural residents depended would be put in great jeopardy if the proposals were implemented, Mr Biggs said.
Media contact:
Graham Biggs
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
1) The Rural Services Network is a group of more than 200 organisations working together to improve the delivery of rural services across England. The two operating arms of the network are the Sparsity Partnership for Authorities Delivering Rural Services (SPARSE) and the Rural Services Partnership. Further information and a full list of members are available at http://www.rsnonline.org.uk
2) The network's response to the government's consultation proposed changes to the concessionary fares scheme can be seen at: http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/images/files/concessionaryfaresresponse091110.pdf
3) The government's proposed changes to the scheme can be seen at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/closed/2010-34/
4) The Rural Services Network seeks to establish best practice across the spectrum of rural service provision. The network has representation across the complete range of rural services, including local authorities, public bodies, businesses, charities and voluntary groups. We are devoted to safeguarding and improving services in rural communities across England. We are the only national network specifically focusing on this vital aspect of rural life.
5) The Rural Services Network exists to ensure services delivered to the communities of predominantly rural England are as strong and as effective as possible. The term 'predominately rural' refers to counties and Local Authority districts with at least 50 percent of their population living in rural settlements (ie. rural towns, villages, hamlets and dispersed dwellings) as identified in the Office for National Statistics' rural definition, and including larger market towns as identified in the Defra classification of local authority districts.
The rural definition and classification were devised by the Rural Evidence Research Centre (RERC) at Birkbeck College. Further information on these can be found at http://www.rerc.ac.uk