Voluntary services have added their voices to a campaign to keep travel tokens operating in Basingstoke and Deane.
The borough’s Disability Forum has launched a petition calling for Hampshire County Council to return money set aside for travel tokens in the area.
The forum says scrapping the tokens would badly effect needy residents who rely on them to get around.
Maureen Covacic, Deputy Chief Executive of Basingstoke Voluntary Services (BSV), said: “The borough council if fighting really hard to pressure the county council and we are supporting them.
“We are trying to get people to realise how much of a knock on effect this move will have for people who need help.”
From April, Hampshire County Council will be responsible for providing concessionary travel using cash currently set aside by local councils for the service.
In Basingstoke and Deane this includes £1.3m that funds the token schemes as an alternative to standard bus passes.
The county plan is to provide pensioners and the disabled with a bus pass giving them free travel between 9.30am and 11pm from Monday to Friday and at any time during weekends – but scrap the tokens.
At present, the 14 district councils in Hampshire offer differing levels of support for people travelling on public transport.
While Basingstoke council provides free travel tokens Eastleigh, Winchester and Havant do not.
In Basingstoke, 59 per cent of residents eligible under the scheme benefit from the tokens, which enable them to use services such as Neighbour Care, Shopmobility and Dial-a-Ride.
The fear is Basingstoke will lose its tokens and money put aside for them will be used to prop up other areas of the county.
And Ms Covacic said that the proposed scheme, especially in rural areas, would hit needy residents hard.
She said: “A majority of older people eligible to receive concessionary fares have significant disabilities and frailties making it impossible for them to travel on buses.
“For these older people the drop in benefit is 100 per cent.”
The petition has been moved between organisations represented by Basingstoke Voluntary Services in a bid to drum up signatures to hand to the county council.
Ms Covacic said earlier in the year BSV has written to Local Government minister Eric Pickles, who said there was nothing legally stopping Hampshire giving the money back.
On December 9, the borough council voted unanimously to ramp up the pressure against the county councils plans.
Borough councillor Andrew McCormick said at a full council meeting: “ Why should we subsidise other parts of Hampshire while our residents suffer?
“We do not want a Hampshire average, we do not want a lesser service, we want what our residents have enjoyed for years.
“The only thing that will stop us operating the travel token scheme is the county council taking 1.3m out of our budgets.”
