AN ENTERPRISING pensioner has devised a way to beat bus pass rules on boarding times – by climbing aboard at the next stop.
Bob Poots, 65, has discovered that he can use a bus at any time with his pass if he walks to a bus stop just within the West Dorset district on Dorchester Road near to Old Station Road.
Yet if Mr Poots boards the bus on Littlemoor Road, at the stop closest to his home within the Weymouth and Portland borough boundary, he can’t use his bus pass before 9.30am or after 11pm.
Early riser Mr Poots, of Weymouth, lives just inside the West Dorset district boundary.
He has branded the situation ‘ludicrous’, because West Dorset tax payers have to walk around half a mile until they can board at a bus stop in keeping with their local authority’s allowances for bus use.
Mr Poots said: “I don’t use the bus very often but I tried to go into Weymouth with my bus pass and I ran into a few problems.
“The simplest thing would be if all the councils did the same thing with the bus pass scheme. It would be nice if everybody could use the bus pass whenever they like.
“Any reasonable person must surely agree this is a ludicrous situation which should be resolved. This can be quite easily achieved by incorporating the three bus stops in question as permissible boarding places.”
Mr Poots has written to his local councillor asking if changes could be made to how the bus stops are classed under different concessionary fare schemes.
A Weymouth and Portland Borough Council spokesman said that the authority complies with the national concessionary bus pass scheme.
Ken Brake, West Dorset District Council’s contact and support team leader, said: “We have received a small number of enquiries about this particular bus stop, which is sited within Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s boundary.
“West Dorset District Council does allow free all day travel for its residents, but we have always stated that this additional concession can only apply for journeys commencing within our district.
“It would not be possible to incorporate this stop within our boundary as this would mean changing well-defined local authority borders.
“Any attempt to incorporate this stop into our area could have implications for other close border stops, such as with North Dorset, Purbeck and South Somerset district councils and could incur additional costs.”
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