Andrew Turner, the Island’s MP, has said it is right that the Government is finally to consult on amending the grant formula which funds free national bus travel for pensioners but has damned it as being ‘much too little – far too late’.

In a letter to Mr Turner dated 4th November the Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan MP said that the revised grant formula would lead to increases in payments to around 30 local authorities including an additional £890,000 to the Island for the financial year 2010/11. It would be paid for by reducing the grant to London and 63 other authorities.

The announcement follows a meeting with Transport Minister Paul Clark MP in January at which Mr Turner, Cllr Tim Hunter- Henderson and Stuart Love Director of Environments and Neighbourhoods outlined the difficulties the Island faced because the funding formula does not properly recognise the additional journeys we are obliged to provide for tourists and holidaymakers.

Mr Turner said,

“Together we made a very forceful case for the Island to receive additional funding because the existing formula was inadequate and didn’t cover the cost of providing the services. Some areas received far more in compensation than they spent in providing concessionary travel. Although I am glad there is some movement from the Government on this issue, it implicitly recognises that the existing funding formula is unfair. If the formula for funding the national scheme is unfair now - it has been unfair since its inception in 2008, yet there is no suggestion of any sort of compensation for those authorities, including the Isle of Wight, which lost out in previous years. This is much too little - far too late!
“I very much hope this consultation is successful and does eventually lead to additional grant for the Island but I fear this may be a case of this administration leaving a mess for a future Government to sort out”.

Cllr Edward Giles, IW Council cabinet member for environment and transport, said:

"While we welcome the apparent acknowledgement that the scheme is inadequately funded, we regret this response still leaves IW Council tax payers significantly out of pocket.

"Not only does this announcement fail to account for the historic nature of the flawed funding mechanism since the concessionary fares scheme was introduced in 2006, the figure in question does not even come close to meeting the current shortfall in the scheme which is expected to be around £3 million this year. This is money that, had the scheme been properly funded, could have been spent on other areas of importance to Island residents."

END Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808