CAMPAIGNERS are making a last-ditch appeal to council chiefs to give pensioners free travel tokens as an alternative to bus passes.

The call comes as the county council is poised to axe tokens for thousands of over-60s.

Currently 49,000 people opt for tokens which allow free travel in taxis, ferries and community transport schemes such as dial-a-ride while 7,000 choose railcards instead of a free bus pass.

But control of the concessionary travel scheme will pass from 11 district councils to Hampshire County Council in April 2011 in a bid to cut costs.

The county council is proposing to introduce a standard county-wide scheme in which only bus passes will be offered to pensioners to travel free between 9.30am to 11pm Monday to Friday and any time at weekends.

Meanwhile, travel tokens, worth £32, will be limited to disabled children aged five-plus and adults.

Disabled people will also be eligible for free bus travel together with a companion pass if they are unable to travel alone.

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At present, district councils subsidise a range of optional extras on top of the statutory minimum bus pass for the over-60s. The value of tokens issued by districts ranges from £24 to £75.

Gosport, Basingstoke and Deane and East Hampshire offer free travel tokens to all over-60s while the New Forest and Test Valley restrict tokens to pensioners who are disabled or receiving benefits such as pension credit.

Eastleigh, Winchester and Havant currently don’t have free tokens for disabled people but all the other districts do.

Eastleigh Southern Parishes Older Persons’ Forum is sending a deputation to lobby Councillor Mel Kendal, executive member for the environment for Hampshire County Council, when he makes a final decision this Friday.

Group member Diane Andrewes said: “I am delighted that travel tokens will be available for registered disabled people across the county but we would like to them to be available for all older people with mobility problems and people in rural areas where there are no buses.

“The bus pass is no use to them because either there are no buses or they can’t get to them because of mobility problems. Tokens are flexible because they can be used in whatever form of transport is needed.”

The cost of the proposed county council scheme is £13.2m in 2011-12 compared to the estimated £17m cost of extending travel tokens and rail cards to all over- 60s.

Council bosses say if they are given more Government cash, they want to expand the scheme to allow all-day travel before 9.30am and to offer travel vouchers/tokens to over-60s living in rural areas without a bus service.

In a statement Cllr Kendal said: “We have carried out extensive consultation with individuals, community groups and our district and borough partners but we will consider any additional views people wish to put forward.”

Councillor Alan Dowden, Liberal Democrat opposition spokesman for the elderly, said: “A lot of older people who were better-off under the district council- funded schemes will be disappointed.

Nobody likes things taken away from them. It is a difficult decision for the county. At the end of the day it has to be fair across all the districts.”

Southampton City Council offers free bus travel to over-60s and the disabled starting journeys in the city between 9am and midnight and said it intended to continue the scheme next year.