A Fife campaigner has claimed elderly and disabled people in rural communities are missing out on a vital bus service.
Tom Kinnaird of Ballingry accused Fife Council of offering a “postcode lottery service” over its roll out of Dial-a-Ride and Ring & Ride.
The council said it cannot afford to run the service where there are few passengers.
“The service does not cater for all of the vulnerable people in Fife. Only a select few in the more built up areas enjoy the service,” said Mr Kinnaird.
“This is clearly a postcode lottery service.”
Mr Kinnaird said he contacted the council in 2015 to ask why the service had been introduced in Kirkcaldy, Levenmouth, Glenrothes, Dunfermline and Rosyth but not the rest of Fife.
He said: “This service is provided for anyone with a need for door to door transport within their own local area. This covers the elderly and infirm, people with disabilities, wheelchair users, people with carers to assist in their daily lives and children with special needs.
“It is a fantastic service, providing free transport to a large group of people who really need it.
“For that reason, I put it to the officers of Fife Council that the decision not to complete the roll out to the rest of Fife was, in my opinion, discriminatory.”
Councillor Tom Adams recently spoke out to quash rumours that the service faced the axe under council budget cuts.
Colin Hamilton, who manages Fife Council’s passenger transport services, said: “No decisions have been taken yet about the future of this or any other service.
“We’ve explained to Mr Kinnaird on numerous occasions that this service is distributed on a pro-rata basis of the population of Fife. This therefore means that smaller communities will see less of the bus services than larger communities.
“We understand that this is a valued service, just as all council services and funding are important to someone, and it would be great if we could make it available to more communities.
“Unfortunately, as has been well publicised, with demand for so many essential and statutory services increasing we simply don’t have enough money to do this.
“Choices about where to spend and save are made by councillors and they will make these choices at the end of this month.”
