A TRAVEL scheme for elderly people in East Yorkshire, which is costing £220,000 a year to run, could be axed.

Plans for phasing out East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s Early Bird Bus Pass initiative and replacing it with an alternative are to be considered at a meeting next week.

About 1,400 over-60s in the area use the scheme, allowing them free weekday travel on buses before 9.30am, but the number of passholders has fallen.

A report compiled by a panel set up to review the scheme, which will be discussed by the council’s cabinet next Monday, has recommended exploring “ways of providing other means of accessible, efficient and reliable transport across the whole of the East Riding”.

But it said the focus should be kept on allowing older people to reach health and leisure facilities and shops while also providing travel opportunities for under-60s.

“It was felt that, although the scheme at its present time is used, numbers are falling and changes could be made to benefit a greater number of people,” said the panel’s report.

“If discontinued, the savings of around £220,000 could be used, after consultation with community groups, to better help those needing public transport to access medical services and to help transport across the whole of the East Riding.”

When the Early Bird scheme was introduced in 2008, 2,500 passes were issued at a cost of £15, but when the price increased to £25 last April, that number fell to 1,400.

Earlier this year, the cost rose again to £35. The panel has also warned that elderly residents in some East Yorkshire villages where the only bus of the day leaves before 9.30am, meaning they cannot use their national bus passes, must not be left “isolated”.