It's that time of the year again. Across the Home Counties, those of us who represent smaller authorities bordering London's “completely free travel zone” (for those who qualify) are struggling to come to terms with The Great Bus Pass Lottery.

An episode in confusion and farce, the bus pass negotiation pits Districts and County Halls against one another in a game of high stakes poker. However, unlike at least some poker games, your chances of emerging with a winning smile in this process remain, for the most part, non-existent. You're never going to be able to offer all your passes for free, and so the comparison with free travel in greater London will always aggrieve and anger your populous (who often only live 300 yards, or less, beyond the GLA border!). You will always remain that miserly authority who does not care for its most needy, the senior citizens and those on benefit and disability. Indeed, like the true Mr. Scrooge that you are, you prefer to inject the limited monies available to you into weird and wonderful adventures like street cleaning, waste management and re-cycling, to name but a few of your “hobbies".

We in Hertsmere Borough Council, have I suppose, a rather normal bus pass situation for an authority located right on the edge of the greater London region. From a population of just under 99,000 people, we have potentially 24,000 persons who qualify for some type of subsidised pass. Currently, just over 5,200 people apply for a pass, selecting from a range of permits including disability, zonal, zonal-benefit, statutory-minimum and countrywide half-fare. This financial year Hertsmere paid out over £750,000 for its subsidised scheme, from a total revenue budget of only twelve million pounds.

Significantly, we like many other authorities bordering the GLA region have a high percentage of red London buses, together with of course Hertfordshire buses, running on our roads. Indeed, Bushey (right next to Harrow), Borehamwood (right next to Barnet) and Potters Bar (right next to Enfield), definitely feel much closer and similar to the urban metropolis than the leafy lanes of North Hertfordshire. You only need look at the congestion on our roads to know this!

We in Hertsmere have spent the last couple of years talking about trying to get a “smart-card” system up and running. However, the many red London buses in our Borough will delay any such “technology saviour", for at least the next five years anyway, as apparently the cost of fitting the necessary scanners is prohibitive to London Transport. Adding to our woes is the undisputed fact that our “joined-up” bus system (or lack of it) does not really allow for a free and open debate between London Transport and our current County Council bus operators.

So, what can be done? Should we just muddle on, enduring the wrath of our residents year in, year out, without any workable solution on the foreseeable horizon. Is this a fair way of treating our electorate in Hertsmere and other authorities bordering the GLA region?

I think not. The time has come for those of us in this predicament to join forces and lobby central Government and the GLA. The sooner we accept that the urban sprawl (and of course the red London buses), has long since passed Barnet, Harrow and Enfield, and is now well and truly into Potters Bar, Bushey and Borehamwood, the better off we might be.

We cannot avoid taking this problem to a higher level. We must begin to lobby central Government and the GLA for a practicable and workable solution to this pressing issue.

I have no doubt that it will take years to move this debate forward. However, better to fight for progressive improvement, than just sit back and admit defeat!