Difficulties arose when free travel was introduced in April 2008 in England. Wales had introduced a similar scheme a few years before but nobody in either Government had spoken to each other about harmonising the two schemes.
Heather said “Pensioners in my border village can travel free to Northumberland or Cornwall but they can’t use buses a few miles down the road to come home free! I’ve been campaigning for three years now to get things moving with Montgomeryshire Assembly Member Mick Bates. We got a commitment some time ago from the Cardiff Welsh Assembly to sort this but despite promises from civil servants nothing has happened from the Westminster end.”
At Thursday’s (21st Jan) meeting of the Local Government Association’s transport Board, Cllr Kidd obtained a commitment from the Government to finally take action on this issue. Mr Khan said “Discussions are taking place at official level with the Devolved Administrations about how reciprocal arrangements for cross border concessionary travel could work.”
Heather said “He outlined the difficulties but assured me that they would put on extra pressure to resolve it. The economic situation makes it important to resolve this as quickly as possible so that visiting friends and family remains possible.”