Letter: The Mayoral failure

The reaction of the elderly was of great disappointment and disbelief. We are not happy with this decision on several accounts.

The meeting was presented with a wholly bogus report that pretended South Yorkshire could end up paying £45m via “ revenue reimbursement “(based on a system whereby the cost of every travel made by each ENCTS pass-holder is reimbursed to the operator). This system is not found anywhere else.

For example, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and West Midlands concessionary systems are based on a fixed cost, agreed with the operators. Greater Manchester with an elderly population of about 600,000 people pays a fixed amount of £1.2 million (pre- pandemic). No additional payments are made.

Also, the Mayor neglected to tell the Transport Committee that the train companies, under the Railways Act 1993 “TOCs (Train Operating Companies) are also required to participate in any local authority‘s concessionary fare scheme providing there is no loss to the train operator”. There will be no loss. The current half fare scheme apparently yields less than £ 340,000 a year for the TOCs (170,000 paid by the ENCTS pass-holder and 170,000 paid by South Yorkshire).

All the Mayor needs to do is offer a sum above that - say £400,000 p+ - to include travel into West Yorkshire as a fixed fee - the norm elsewhere - and then decide whether this relatively small amount is worth setting up a new bureaucracy to collect an annual £10 fee to cover the cost.

If, the Committee were to decide to charge £10 annually, there will be a gain of thousands of pounds. There would be no loss, and it will not cost £45m!

Having handed over £10m in extra subsidies to the bus companies despite these making a profit in the region of tens of millions and providing a worsening service, the Mayor has run out of excuses for not restoring the concession.

If the Transport Committee are happy to continue to be misled and have essential information withheld from them then the future doesn’t look good for the county.

If, on the other hand (as we expect and hope) they are as annoyed and disappointed as many of us are, they should insist the concession is restored as soon as possible as we used to have it - on production of the ENCTS card - and sort the matter of covering or accepting the funding at a later date.

There needs to be a meeting very soon, not behind closed doors, and with no bogus report to look at. For many of us, time is pressing. We haven’t got many years left.

If the Mayor and Transport Committee need more details on how the calculations are made, we are willing to provide detailed information and make a presentation, as the Committee feels fit.

By the way, details have been provided to the Mayor already, but he chose to ignore these in the assessment.

We are not giving up because the restoration can be done, at no great additional cost, or at no cost at all. We are not going away. It is important to us all.

We trust in your good judgment and commitment to the elderly of South Yorkshire.

Mike Smith, Luisa Fletcher, Keith Hopkins

S70