Freedom Pass has gone up to £100 and no pass for Sixth Formers

By RachelMurphy | Monday, February 28, 2011, 10:04

KCC has announced that the Freedom Pass will indeed go up to £100 from September - and there is no pass for Sixth Formers.

Kent Freedom Pass price hike will surely make more parents drive their kids to school.

This is really disappointing news - and I feel this has happened without the vast majority of parents having their say.

As a mum of three, with one child moving into Sixth Form in September, I am going to be paying a fortune for bus travel. It will be a lot cheaper for me to drive my children to school and ferry them around at weekends. Is that what KCC wants? More congestion and pollution? I don't think so.

Here's there announcement:

"The Kent Freedom Pass provides young people with access to the bus network of Kent - any time of the day, any day of the week, any week of the year.

Following a decision of the County Council on 17 February 2011, the previously published plans for the Council's budget have been confirmed. This means that the scheme which will be offered for 2011/2012 will be as follows:

· The standard fee for a Kent Freedom Pass will be £ 100

· Children in receipt of Free School Meals will pay £ 50

· KCC's local Looked After Children and Young Carers will not pay any fee

No other changes are planned to the scope of the scheme.

While this information has to be made known at this time to reflect the Council's budget process, communications to parents and pupils by means of email and posters will be circulated following the return of schools after Easter 2011, at which time we will be better placed to give more precise details of the application process and timescales for the return of schools in September 2011. Therefore, there is no need for parents to contact us at this time in relation to next academic year. If however any parents wish to contact us, any telephone enquiries should be directed to the KCC Contact Centre on 08458 247 247.

In the meantime, the details and terms and conditions remain unchanged for applications received by the cut-off for the current 2010/2011 scheme (up to and including Tuesday 31 May 2011). Applications received after that date will be treated as applications for September 2011."

Any thoughts?

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Comments

I could not agree more. I have just been presented with a letter detailing how much my 16 year old will have to pay when he goes in to 6th form - it is almost £500 a year - bit of a leap from £50. I think KCC has made a huge mistake. Stand by for more traffic, more accidents, more pollution, more stressed parents...... is that what they want!

By 28Maz28 at 16:40 on 03/04/11
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Just goes to show that the fat cats of local government have no environmental policy what so ever, that is until they want to introduce a new tax and claim that they have the environment is at the fore front of their minds - The freedom pass was one of the better policy decisions, less cars clogging up the streets around school, less polution - What will happen when the kids in year 8 currently are forced to stay at school until they are 18. The writer of this story is right - it is cheaper to run a car than use public transport, when is Britain going to follow Europe and offer a decent, affordable public transport system, a policy like this takes big balls and a clear vision - I dont think anybody in Kent County Council or any where in the UK is remotely capable of making a policy on this scale but then on their salaries it's easy to see why they lose sight of these issues. Wake up KCC - if you care about the environment and financial pressures on parents whose kids make the decision to stay on at school (and one day make a better job of running Kent) - put the money into public transport and not into your over inflated pension pots!!.

By acp870052 at 09:13 on 03/04/11
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yet another example of cost increases to cover incompetent fund management......

By jasatk at 13:34 on 08/03/11
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