News Date: Tuesday 8th July 2008
Tim attacks Government for £900,000 shortfall in local public transport funding
Tim has attacked the Government for not fully funding its concessionary free bus travel scheme.
In a debate in the House of Commons Tim challenged the Minister to explain why the Government had allowed Worthing and Adur to suffer a £900,000 shortfall in funding.
Tim, who supports the scheme, said:
'The estimate is that there will be a shortfall of between ?600,000 and ?650,000, possibly in Worthing alone. In Adur district next door, the shortfall for this year has been estimated at ?238,000, which is equivalent to 4.3 per cent. on the council tax.
'The council leader has estimated that if we did not have to subsidise this supposedly fully funded Government scheme, we virtually need not have increased council tax this year at all.
'All the other savings that have been made have been wiped out by the additional costs of the scheme, which have fallen on Adur council tax payers; the scheme has not been fully funded as the Government had claimed.'
(For the full text of Tim's speech see the 'Parliament' section on this website. For the full debate click here.)
