Residents of Onchan and Garff will be able to receive free bus journeys, the Infrastructure Minister has announced.

Tim Baker said the move is designed to assist those who have been affected by the changes to Governor’s Bridge and Glencrutchery Road.

Mr Baker was answering an urgent question from Julie Edge (Onchan) when he revealed he had adopted the idea after a meeting with Onchan and Garff MHKs.

The idea for the bus passes came from Rob Callister (Onchan, pictured) who has recently joined the Department of Infrastructure on an interim basis.

’The department will be issuing free bus travel cards to those residents of Onchan, Baldrine and Laxey who want them’, said Mr Baker.

’These cards will be loaded with 18 journeys so that anyone in those areas who wants to commute by bus can do so.

’The tickets will be for use in peak hours, if residents in these areas want to use one free journey a day, they can, in effect, commute for half price for up to a month.’

Members debated the road changes, which the DoI introduced, it says, to assist with traffic flow since which has increased significantly since it chose to turn the promenade one way as it pushes contractor Auldyn to finish the promenade by April of next year.

Currently, the only main route for a motorist to go from Laxey to Douglas is through Governor’s Bridge, along Glencrutchery Road and down Ballaquayle Road. Soon Church Road Marina will close too leaving Victoria Street as the only main route onto the promenade.

Members from other constituencies such as Lawrie Hooper (Ramsey) suggested the people whose buses also use that route while Garff MHK Daphne Caine suggested extending it to the whole of her constituency to include Maughold.

However, Mr Baker said while his department was open to ideas, he did not envisage this happening.