REPORT TO
DATE OF MEETING
Cabinet
13 February 2008
Report template revised February 2007
SUBJECT
PORTFOLIO
AUTHOR
Concessionary Fares
Corporate and
Support Services
M Nuttall
ITEM
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN THIS REPORT
Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs)
Those local authorities having the legal responsibility to provide and fund concessionary bus travel
for the elderly and disabled. In Lancashire the district and unitary councils are designated as the
Travel Concession Authorities.
Extra statutory travel concessions
Those elements of the concessionary travel scheme that local authorities are not required by law
to provide and for which they receive no Government grant support. These elements of the
concessionary travel scheme are therefore provided on a discretionary basis and funded wholly by
local council taxpayers.
Department for Transport (DfT)
The UK Government Department responsible for Transport Issues
SUMMARY AND LINK TO CORPORATE
PRIORITIES
scheme should continue once the new
statutory free fare scheme is introduced with
effect from April 2008.
This report provides information on the new
2008 national scheme for concessionary
transport. Members will recall that
consideration of this report was deferred at
the Cabinet meeting held on 12 December
pending the outcome of a meeting of
Lancashire Leaders on 11 January 2008.
This report has therefore now been updated
to take into account the issues discussed at
the Leaders’ meeting.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Cabinet note the contents of this report and:
1. determine the way forward, post April
2008, as regards the extra statutory
travel concessions highlighted in the
report;
2. confirm, on the basis set out in this report,
whether the Council should agree to the
principles of the countywide pooling of
concessionary bus travel costs and
funding;
3. subject to recommendation 2 above,
delegate agreement of the detailed
countywide pooling arrangements to the
Corporate Director (Resources) in
consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Corporate & Support Services; and
4. confirm the additional provision to be
made for the new concessionary travel
scheme within the Council’s budget for
2008/9.
One of the key issues and risks highlighted
within this report is the potential budgetary
implications for Travel Concession Authorities
(TCAs), such as South Ribble Borough
Council, arising from the new scheme. As a
consequence, all the Lancashire local
authorities have been asked to consider the
countywide pooling of the all the costs and
funding associated with providing
concessionary travel. They have also been
asked to consider whether the discretionary
elements of the current concessionary travel
1

DETAILS AND REASONING
Background Information
New National Concessionary Travel
Scheme
new pass holders will make 40% of the
number of local trips and 25% of the
number of non-local trips made by
existing pass holders.
Table 2 at Appendix 1 provides an estimation
of the total additional costs of the new
scheme in Lancashire.
The government is introducing a new
mandatory concessionary travel scheme from
April 2008. This will give persons aged 60
and over and disabled persons travel free of
charge on local bus services operating
throughout England between 09.30 and
23.00 on weekdays and all day weekends
and Bank Holidays. All eligible persons will
be issued with a new travel pass in the form
of a ‘smart card’.
Additional Government Funding
It is clear from the Appendix 1 that the
funding being proposed for South Ribble
Borough Council will be insufficient to cover
the costs of the new scheme. That said, the
funding gap could be considerably wider if
the Government assumptions (referred to
above) used to forecast the additional costs
prove to be on the low side. As Members will
appreciate the demand led nature of this
expenditure makes it extremely difficult to
predict and control.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has
previously issued a consultation paper on the
distribution of additional grant funding to meet
the additional costs of the new concessionary
travel scheme. This funding will be payable
to TCAs from 2008/09. £212m is being made
available nationally.
In response to the consultation paper, the
Cabinet Member for Corporate & Support
Services has already made representations
to Government regarding the funding
proposals, in particular the expected shortfall
for South Ribble. Similar representations
have also been made by the Cabinet Member
for Finance & Resources in response to the
recent Revenue Support Grant Settlement.
DfT have now confirmed the funding
allocations for each individual local authority.
It is proposed that the grant will be paid as
non ring-fenced special grant for 3 years,
after that period it will be paid as part of each
council’s revenue support grant settlement.
Table 1 at Appendix 1 indicates the amount
of grant to be paid to each Lancashire TCA
by DfT.
Charging arrangements
Under the new scheme TCAs will be
responsible for the concessionary travel costs
of all journeys beginning in their area,
whereas currently it based on the journeys
made resident concessionary passholders .
This is likely to result in significant ‘shifts’ in
costs between TCAs, thus making the costs
of the overall concessionary travel scheme
extremely difficult to predict from 2008/9
onwards.
Estimated Potential Additional Costs of
New Scheme
A key issue for TCAs is the potential costs of
the new scheme.
It has been possible (using some
assumptions in the DfT consultation paper on
additional grant – see below) to calculate the
potential additional costs for Lancashire
TCAs which may arise from the new scheme.
It must be noted that these estimates are
speculative and do not purport to be a
robust analysis of potential cost
increases.
In addition, with effect from April 2008, it is
expected that smartcards (which will produce
more accurate information from that currently
available) will be used to allocate costs
between TCAs. This again will result in a
change in how costs are allocated between
TCAs.
Extra Statutory Concessions
All TCAs have been asked which, if any, of
the discretionary enhancements to the
statutory scheme should be retained after
April 2008. These enhancements are funded
The assumptions are:
 pass take-up will increase by 20%;
 publicity for the new scheme will increase
the number of journeys by 10%; and
2
by individual councils and therefore receive
no Government funding support.
The main extra statutory concessions
currently provided by TCAs are:
 Peak time travel weekdays (i.e. before
09.30 at half fare for over 60s and 50p for
disabled and after 23.00 free or flat rate);
 Community Transport;
 Blackpool Tramway; and
 Knott End Ferry;
 West Lancs Disabled Scheme and
 Rossendale over-90s Scheme (both of
these schemes have been largely
overlapped by the mandatory free local
travel scheme introduced in April 2006
and from April 2008 would be relevant
only to peak time travel).
individual TCAs. There is no obligation to
offer these concessions to visitors.
In order to implement any changes to the
scheme, a decision must be made by each
Lancashire TCA as to whether these extrastatutory concessions are to continue beyond
April 2008.
Operationally, each TCA may make an
individual decision regarding the extrastatutory concessions. However, if bordering
TCAs operate a different policy, this will
increase the administrative burden and
become very confusing for the concessionary
passengers. Clearly, the greater the
uniformity of approach, the easier it will be to
explain changes to the public, operators and
staff.
The Table at Appendix 2 attached shows the
estimated cost to each Lancashire TCA of
maintaining these extra statutory
concessions.
Contracted Services
The County Council subsidises a number of
bus routes that are not considered to be
commercially viable. The County Council has
indicated that, in future, it will consult district
councils regarding contracted bus services
and any decisions will be taken via
Lancashire Local.
Community Transport is aimed at assisting
those people who do not have regular access
to a car and cannot use public transport
easily, as defined by Section 19 of the
Transport Act. This means that if someone is
disabled or elderly then they can use the
service if they live in the more urban areas of
the Borough.
Lancashire Leaders’ Meeting - 11 January
2008
There are five schemes operating in South
Ribble. Three are linked to the eastern side
of the Borough (linked with Chorley) and two
with the western side (linked with Preston).
As explained above, to date, the current
concessionary travel scheme has benefited
from being operated on a consistent
countywide basis. This has made the
scheme easier to operate and reduced the
passenger confusion that could occur if
individual councils operated differing travel
schemes. In light of the anticipated
budgetary pressures arising from the
expected shortfall in Government funding for
the new scheme, the majority view at the
Leaders’ meeting was that, reluctantly, with
effect from April 2008, the concessionary
travel scheme should be operated on the
basis of the statutory scheme. That said,
they were concerned to see the retention of
Community Transport schemes as a
discretionary enhancement to the scheme. It
was recognised that these services provide
vulnerable people with public transport where
they would not have access to normal bus
routes. Also it was agreed that the Blackpool
Tramway and Knott End Ferry should be
They are as follows:
Eastern side
o Dial a ride bus
o Red Rose Runner
o Flexi link
Western side
o Dial a ride bus
o Red Rose Runner
Any able bodied people using the services in
remote locations, that do not have a bus
pass, will pay the full fare.
If extra statutory concessions are maintained,
the costs can be charged to TCAs according
to residence using data from the smart cards.
The extra concessions could be limited to
existing NoWcard holders or to residents of
3
o
retained as part of the countywide pooling
proposal (see later in this report).

The Leaders were also extremely concerned
about the way in which the additional
Government funding for concessionary travel
is to be shared out. At best, this could
produce some “winners” and “losers” and
have significant budgetary implications for
individual councils. In the worst case
scenario the total extra funding could be
insufficient overall – countywide and
nationally.


In an attempt to mitigate against the potential
financial impact on any individual council,
each of the Lancashire authorities was asked
to consider the following principles for pooling
concessionary travel costs and funding:



This total contribution will be uplifted
to take account of inflation by a
common percentage
Costs chargeable to the pool:
o Mandatory concessionary travel
costs for commercial services and
contracted services.
o Discretionary concessions in relation
to the Blackpool Tramway and Knott
End Ferry.
Community Transport concessionary
costs are not chargeable to the pool, and
are to be funded by each TCA.
Any overall surplus or deficit on the pool
will be shared between TCAs on the
basis of the NOWCARD data (which in
effect will be in proportion to the actual
costs for each TCA).
The County Council currently administers the
scheme on behalf of the Lancashire TCAs. It
has indicated that, in future, it will only
continue to carry out this function if there is a
countywide agreement to pooling. If there is
no agreement on pooling alternative
administrative arrangements will need to be
established. Ideally this would still need to be
carried out on a collective basis as it would
be very costly for any authority to establish
and operate its own administrative
arrangements.
The pooling arrangement should be
effective from 1 April 2008
Initially it will be for a 3 year period
Participating TCAs will contribute to the
pool:
o Actual scheme costs for 2007/08 for
commercial and contracted services.
o The amount of DfT Special Grant
awarded to each TCA for 2008/09
additional costs of the national
scheme
WIDER IMPLICATIONS
In the preparation of this report, consideration has been given to the impact of its proposals in all
the areas listed below, and the table shows any implications in respect of each of these. The risk
assessment which has been carried out forms part of the background papers to the report.
FINANCIAL
The financial implications are set out within the body of the report
LEGAL
The Council will need to ensure that the new statutory concessionary
travel scheme is implemented in accordance with the requirements of the
legislation. This is being addressed on a countywide basis.
RISK
The demand led nature of the concessionary travel scheme means that
forecasting the cost of the scheme is extremely difficult. This presents a
significant risk to the Council’s medium term financial strategy. Other
local authorities are experiencing similar difficulties. The principles of
pooling concessionary travel costs and funding may go some way to
mitigating against this risk. In agreeing the detailed pooling
arrangements, the Council would need to ensure it was not unreasonably
exposed to the risks of overall countywide costs being higher than
expected. That said, the additional benefit of a countywide agreement on
pooling would be a united voice with which to lobby Government should
the extra grant funding allocated prove to be inadequate to meet the
costs of the new scheme. .
4
OTHER (see below)
Asset Management
Corporate Plans and
Policies
Efficiency Savings
Freedom of Information/
Data Protection
Health and Safety
Human Rights Act 1998
Respect Agenda
Staffing
Sustainability
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
5
Equality, Diversity and
Community Cohesion
Implementing Electronic
Government
Training and
Development
Appendix 1
Table 1 - Amount of Additional Grant Funding per TCA 2008/09 – 2010/11
Blackburn
Blackpool
Burnley
Chorley
Fylde
Hyndburn
Lancaster
Pendle
Preston
Ribble Valley
Rossendale
South Ribble
West Lancs
Wyre
2008/09
£000
492
1,368
333
275
275
327
487
268
590
153
206
266
247
323
5,610
2009/10
£000
503
1,401
340
282
281
335
498
274
604
156
211
273
253
331
5,742
2010/11
£000
517
1,439
350
289
289
344
512
281
620
161
216
280
260
340
5,898
Table 2 - Estimated Potential Additional Costs of the 2008 National Scheme per TCA for 2008/09
Blackburn
Blackpool
Burnley
Chorley
Fylde
Hyndburn
Lancaster
Pendle
Preston
Ribble Valley
Rossendale
South Ribble
West Lancs
Wyre
Total
Estimated Costs of 2008 Scheme
Estimated Inflation @ Removal
Extra
Additional
Cost
5%
of flat
Publicity card take2007/08
fare
10%
up 20%
£000
£000
£000
£000
£000
2,083
2,187
142
284
121
2,938
3,085
220
401
179
1,308
1,373
96
178
93
584
613
34
80
87
833
875
61
114
86
1,140
1,197
77
156
81
1,381
1,450
91
188
140
1,113
1,169
73
152
81
2,989
3,138
96
408
125
540
567
32
74
44
838
880
62
114
64
1,134
1,191
81
155
101
708
743
45
97
63
1,470
1,544
90
201
135
19,059
20,012
1,200
2,600
1,400
6
Total
£000
547
800
367
201
260
313
420
306
629
150
240
337
204
426
5,200
APPENDIX 2
Estimated Costs of Existing Extra Statutory Concessions
Peak
Travel
Blackburn
Blackpool
Burnley
Chorley
Fylde
Hyndburn
Lancaster
Pendle
Preston
Ribble Valley
Rossendale
South Ribble
West Lancs
Wyre
Existing Concession £’000
Community Blackpool Knott End
Transport
Tramway
Ferry
Others
Total
63
97
42
15
27
34
40
32
43
14
27
36
20
40
103
19
20
69
19
34
108
28
62
22
12
33
96
48
12
102
2
0
1
2
1
2
4
1
2
2
0
109
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
30
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
2
0
178
218
64
84
47
70
149
62
109
37
42
71
118
227
530
673
240
30
3
1,476
The estimated costs in the table above are based on current ridership and include estimated
inflation up to 2008/09. At this stage, no attempt has been made to estimate the impact of any
potential changes resulting from the new national concessionary travel scheme.
7