Last month I encouraged the new North Ayrshire Council SNP administration to enable all school pupils to take advantage of the SNP Government’s national free bus travel scheme for under 22s. I am pleased to say that this was enthusiastically and swiftly endorsed. North Ayrshire Schools readily agreed to take care of the pupil application process automatically, following parents and carers’ consent, doubling the uptake of the scheme in this, its first week from 4,000 to 8,000 pupils. I also contacted Kilwinning Campus of Ayrshire College who this morning confirmed that they are only too happy to encourage and assist their students to sign up to the scheme. This increased uptake can only boost bus passenger numbers throughout the constituency and I hope inspire Stagecoach to rethink their decision to cancel the X34 and X36 services. With the current Cost of Living Crisis, the free travel scheme allows young people to travel for education, work or leisure. Many young people are yet to sign up for the scheme. However, North Ayrshire Council are on hand to resolve registration issues at: necadmin@north-ayrshire.gov.uk
Further information on how to register, can be found here. ENDS
