SOUTH Lakeland District Council is to lobby central government for fairer concessionary fares following claims that the present system is "discriminatory."

Many residents were outraged in April when the discretionary fares system, that provided eligible elderly and disabled people with £14 worth of travel tokens for trains and taxis, was axed.

It was replaced by the Government' s mandatory bus pass scheme which provides half-price bus passes offering unlimited travel on certain routes in Cumbria.

It meant those eligible for the pass no longer had free access to other modes of transport like trains and taxis.

A three-month consultation period between SLDC and scores of groups including disabled charities, support groups for the elderly and parish councils has revealed that due to frailty, disability and the infrequency of buses in rural areas many people are unable to use their bus pass.

Director of Age Concern South Lakeland Mary Christian said the charity had received countless complaints that the new scheme was marginalising many people.

"A bus pass is fine if you have a bus station and are able to use it.

A lot of people have called in saying that a bus pass is of no use to them because of where they live or because they have mobility problems.

"For most people in rural areas the old system was much better as it was more flexible and they could use a form of transport that was more useful to them."

SLDC's business support manager Barry Atkins said the new scheme was " discriminatory" to people living in rural areas.

He said only 10,000 people - mainly in urban areas - had applied for bus passes compared to the 18,000 people who claimed vouchers for the previous travel token scheme.

"The Government has passed this legislation but it only works equitably if there are bus services in the area.

That is the problem, and in effect the government has discriminated against rural areas and that is the drum we are going to bang.

"What we would like to try and do is to bring back some sort of concession for disabled people and rural parishes that have been affected."

Mr Atkins said that this would mean looking for other sources of funding to pay for an alternative solution or that the Government made changes to the present half-price bus pass scheme to a system that could incorporate other transport.