Swansea Council is wasting spending £35,000 of its concessionary (travel) fund to give all under 16’s free bus travel, any time, any day, any where, in Swansea for two and a half weeks over Christmas. What a complete waste of money, I’m glad I don’t pay my Council Tax to Swansea!

One aim of the scheme is “… to help families with a lot of children who want to come into the city centre to use facilities like the shops, leisure centre and Winter Wonderland.” I can empathise with that and if one of the conditions of travel were that the under 16 year old must travel with a parent I’d applaud the scheme. However, that’s not case so I’m sure the majority of free under 16 journeys will be made by 12 – 16 year olds travelling all over the place just for ‘something to do’.

A far better use of £35,000 of concessionary travel money would be to give school leaving registered job seekers free travel between 09:00 and 17:00 (likely interview times) in order for them to attend interviews or to just get out and knock on employer’s doors in order to find work.