Charities and campaigners have put forward proposals to soften the blow for disabled people who have lost vital travel vouchers.

A national bus travel scheme was launched on Tuesday, giving free off-peak travel to people over 60 and eligible disabled people.

But Maidstone council claims the cost of the scheme will not be covered by a Government grant, forcing it to scrap its own travel voucher scheme.

It has hit disabled people who are unable to use buses, because they can no longer use vouchers to pay for taxi travel. The council said 270 disabled people have not applied for the new bus passes.

A series of suggestions to lessen the impact were put forward by charity managers, councillors and campaigners at an eleventh hour meeting at Maidstone Town Hall.

They included parking vouchers for carers, help with maximising benefits and council tax concessions.

The ideas will be examined by Maidstone council’s cabinet.

A transport service to GP surgeries and within parishes were also ideas which will be looked into, following suggestions put forward by representatives from Maidstone MIND, Maidstone Volunteer Bureau, Kent Association for the Blind, Maidstone Age Concern and the Disabled Persons Liaison Committee.

Another suggestion was to look at including transport in direct payments, which are paid by Kent County Council’s social services for people to buy their own service and support.

Cabinet member for community services, Cllr Mike FitzGerald said he would be taking the suggestions to the next available cabinet meeting.

“I would have liked a long term solution,” he said. “What I want people to have is quality of life every day.

“If we can put pressure on people to make it happen, that would be great. We just need to keep working on it.”

For the full story see Friday's Kent Messenger