The government will not provide any more money to a borough council to meet an estimated £362,000 shortfall to provide free bus travel for over-60s.

Last week representatives of Fylde Borough Council and Fylde MP Michael Jack put the case for receiving move funding in light of the escalating cost of the scheme.

Fylde was given £1.127 million to meet the cost of providing concessionary travel for pensioners, but new passenger data indicates that this will be £362,000 less than required.

That means other council services may need to be cut to make up the gap.

The Government indicated it had provided enough funding for the scheme at the national level and was not inclined to reconsider specific allocations until 2011 when it was likely that the administration of the scheme would be moved from district councils to county councils. However, it was suggested the council may be able to defer some of its current year expenditure to lessen the impact of the scheme in 2008/09.

Councillor John Coombes said: “Councils around the Fylde Coast are facing similar problems.

"The nice thing is that the scheme is bringing so many people in to the area on public transport.

"But we should be able to benefit from this boost to local visitor numbers instead of having to stretch budgets and cut services.

“£362,000 is equivalent to a council tax rise of 7.2% in itself for Fylde Borough and I’d be interested to know from readers whether they would prefer us to cover this additional burden by raising the council tax by this amount or by cutting other services.

An LGA spokesman said: “Whitehall needs to look again at how it allocates the funding for councils to pay for the national concessionary bus fare scheme.

"Ministers maintain that there is enough money in the system as a whole, but evidence from Fylde and other councils shows that in many areas there are big gaps in funding at the local level.

"This is threatening local services and putting pressure on council taxes. "Government committed to ensure that all councils would be fully funded for concessionary fares.

"Ministers now need to deliver on this commitment and make sure that those councils facing shortfalls get enough money to pay for this service, which they have no choice but to provide."