The opportunity for everyone in Palmerston North to have free bus rides for a month has been passed up by the city council, one of the casualties of keeping next year’s rates rise down to 7.7%.
Horizons Regional Council had asked for a $60,000 contribution to support the launch of the new all-electric bus services in February next year.
The proposal was promoted by Green city councillors Brent Barrett and Kaydee Zabelin as a way to encourage everyone to give the new, more frequent and reliable passenger transport service a go.
But a majority of councillors did not support writing a cheque for the regional council, especially given the Government’s Budget announcement of free fares for children under 13 and half-price fares for those under 25
