Council bosses have vowed to step up the pressure on the Government to address a £7 million funding shortfall for free bus fares for pensioners.

The town hall leaders across Sussex say they will take the issue directly to the Minister for the Department of Transport.

The scheme, which is to be rolled out nationally, is to cost far more than originally estimated.

Brighton and Hove City Council has predicted that 200 jobs may be at risk, or an extra £60 slapped on council tax bills, if the balance in funding for the scheme is not addressed.

A string of authorities including Worthing, Hastings, Lewes and Adur have issued similar warnings.

Worthing Borough Council said it could be more than £500,000 out of pocket after an an increase in bus use over the next few years.

A report by Hastings Borough Council revealed that the authority needs to find an extra £206,000 from its budget to cover the shortfall.

In a letter to Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for the Department of Transport, Councillor Gill Mitchell, leader of the opposition Labour group at Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "I do have very real concerns that local taxpayers will bitterly resent having to subsidise the concessionary fares scheme to this degree, either by increases in their council tax or by cuts to council services.

"I believe that without fundamental changes to the funding regime, concessionary fares will place an unacceptable burden on local taxpayers and would ask that the funding of the arrangements for the whole of the expenditure on concessionary fares is reviewed as a matter of urgency.

"The position of the Brighton and Hove Labour Group is that the government should fully meet the costs of the scheme."

The Local Government Association (LGA), set up in 1997 to promote the interests of local authorities, has also thrown its weight behind the submission to the Department of Transport.

Brighton and Hove City Council leader Brian Oxley detailed the funding shortfalls of the bus scheme in a document to the LGA.

This will form part of a consultative document, submitted to the Department of Transport this month (November), regarding the amount and distribution of government funds for local authority transport.

From April 1 2008 everyone aged 60 or over and eligible disabled people will be entitled to free off-peak local bus travel anywhere in England but Sussex introduced the scheme a year early.

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