Holyrood plea by disabled who lost free bus travel

Published on Tuesday 10 June 2008 10:23

A PLEA was made in the Scottish Parliament today on behalf of disabled people who lost out when the national free bus travel scheme was introduced.

Hundreds of people with learning disabilities in the Lothians were among thousands across Scotland who found they were not eligible for free travel under the Scotland-wide scheme, even though they had qualified under the previous free fares policy in their own area.

Today Holyrood's public petitions committee heard an appeal from the Learning Disability Alliance Scotland to restore the free travel entitlement for the group affected.

In a survey of local authorities by the Learning Disability Alliance Scotland, Edinburgh could not provide figures for the number affected by the change, but there were 400 in West Lothian.

Ian Hood, the group's co-ordinator, said the estimated maximum cost of reinstating free travel to people with learning disabilities was around 4.5m.

David McLetchie, Tory MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, said: "This is a major anomaly thrown up by the national concessionary scheme and clearly some people have lost out."

A government spokeswoman said the Scotland-wide free bus scheme for older and disabled people had been agreed by the previous Scottish Executive in consultation with local authorities, but was due to be reviewed in its third year, 2008/2009.