Ethical travel

I WRITE in support of Ken Houston and his timely warning of the dangers posed to Edinburgh's Bus service (Opinion, 6 August).

It brings an extra perspective to the issues raised in the Budget Review and in the Registrar General's report on the ageing population, where "savings" made by the withdrawal of things such as free personal care and concessionary travel are proposed as solutions to our current crisis.

It must be obvious to any regular traveller that the vast majority of elderly people using bus passes are taking up seats that would otherwise be empty. The bus companies are committing few if any extra resources for pensioners. However, the scheme achieves two excellent objectives. First, it encourages older people to get out more and second it provides a mechanism for supporting public transport.

Reducing funding to the scheme would generate substantial on-costs elsewhere.

A civic transport scheme which serves all groups requires some continuity of funding or it will soon serve only the more profitable revenue streams and cease to be public transport.

The Budget Review seems to have done little more than fiddle with the arithmetic, the ages of the elderly, the time of day and so on. A more coherent view is required. The Scottish Government should be encouraged in its determination to retain the scheme.

But it is becoming clear that if we do not base our thinking on a common vision of how a society hangs together, then the current crisis will see the poor, the ill, the elderly and the disadvantaged increasingly marginalised.

We know we face a major funding crisis. But I believe we in Scotland like to think of ourselves as an advanced and compassionate society. Piecemeal fiddling with the sums will not ensure that this remains true.

IAN TAYLOR

Manse Road

Edinburgh