Hands off free bus passes, say the Tories

GOING FOR a morning trip by bus seems to be higher rated by Tory politicians than getting medical prescriptions for nothing, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery.

Nick Bourne – who introduced himself as the Welsh “government in waiting” – was quizzed on the issue during the Tories’ first press briefing of the new term.

We are now into a time when every party is thinking of ways to save on public spending, with Rhodri Morgan talking about identifying programmes of “lesser import” which can be targeted – although for some reason he declines invitations to name some of the targets for cuts.

Tory leader Bourne was asked for details of his most-likely equivalent cuts.  It quickly turned out that free prescriptions are top of the list, and that free bus passes have no such place on that list.

The issue of prescriptions is also listed for cutting by the Lib Dems. They would instead likely update and expand the list of illnesses which qualify for a free script; in any case, everyone aged over 60 wouldn’t pay.

Tory health spokesman Andrew Davies, the South Central farmer, backs up the idea by arguing that ending free prescriptions is one issue which is never raised on the doorstep.

Although cutting back on the free bus passes has been raised by David Melding, another South Central Tory member, Mr Bourne came close to knocking him down.  Mr Melding is one of those who has suggested the passes should be accepted purely during off-peak times.

The argument is that this would save money. But now much ?

It seems as if the idea is to follow England, where such a plan applies in most districts. But the financial figures are so complicated that any comparison is extremely difficult.

In any case, Mr Bourne was quite blunt. He sharply attacked the Government decision to end free use of the Heart of Wales railway line by pass-holders (? only those help by local people) during the summer when trains are filled by full-fare payers.

But then a lot of those “full fare payers” are in fact travelling at cheap rates sold to tourists in London as part of a round day’s trip.

The issue to be uncovered is the extent to which free pass-users are propping up services which would otherwise be at risk – and that money spent on pensioner fares is in fact a very good investment.

A few services have had to be upgraded in terms of frequency or type of vehicle used.

And some extra routes seem to have been introduced over roads which were little served – if at all. Take examples in Powys – Llandovery to Brecon (where the driver even writes down the serial number of passes produced !), and Newtown to Llandrindod.

If the passes are making the entire system safer, that’s a tremendous reason to justify its continuation.

As for free prescriptions, we’ll leave it to health minister Edwina Hart to argue in favour. No doubt, she’ll not be short of words …