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Kent County Councillor Tim Prater has written to County Cabinet Transport Spokesman Nick Chard asking Kent to take the responsibility for administering the National Bus pass scheme within Kent into County control.

The National bus pass scheme which was introduced by the Government last year to extend the previous local pass scheme caused a big expansion of bus take-up by the over 60s in Kent, who can travel free on any bus after 9.00am.

The additional costs of the scheme were meant to be met by the Government, but new figures from Shepway Council show that the total net costs (after subsidy) are expected to be over £1 million to Shepway Council in the years 2008/10.

In May 2008, a Kent County Council report from then Transport spokesman, Keith Ferrin, considered taking the responsibility for the scheme on a County wide basis.

In answer to questions from Tim Prater, Shepway Council have estimated that the average net cost of the scheme to Shepway in 2008/09 was £443,000 and expects it to reach £669,000 in 2009/10. This totals over £1 million in two years - up from around £400,000 for the preceding two years.

The Liberal Democrat Councillor for Folkestone West, Tim Prater, backs the bus pass scheme, but is asking the KCC to take the administration and costs of it under its control as the additional costs are having a massive impact on local district budgets.

Tim Prater said: "The national bus pass scheme has really improved the mobility of the over-60s and chances to get out and about. However, the costs of the scheme are falling hard on Shepway, who simply cannot afford to continue this level of subsidy.

"It cannot be right that a scheme that was sold as fully government funded will have cost local Shepway tax payers well over a million pounds in two years. It's time for the County to step in and support local district councils which are otherwise going to have to cut other services. Kent needs to help Shepway and other councils - now."