Ukrainian refugees' Oxfordshire bus passes held up by postal strikes

Delays to a scheme that issues free bus passes to Ukrainian refugees has been blamed on recent postal strikes.

Oxfordshire County Council and bus companies launched the project to supply new residents with three-month free passes in August.

The authority said about 1,000 people have applied for the passes - but about a third still haven't been delivered.

The council said once it receives them they are sent out immediately, but strikes have delayed the process.

Yurii Hordiienko, who is from the east of Ukraine, is still waiting for his pass and faces a 90-minute walk to and from Oxford if he needs to go into the city.

He said: "You can buy a daily ticket but still it's too expensive for a person who does not have work right now.

"Our community has a lot of people with children and old people and they can't walk [instead of getting the bus] like me."

Eric Jansson has been helping refugees get their passes.

"The offer of a three-month pass is great. It's not so great when it doesn't arrive," he said.

"That means you have to do contingency planning on top of contingency planning, which is no fun and really hard - and we are talking about people who don't necessarily have resources."

Stagecoach said a number of passes have already been delivered and it is working with the council to process another batch.

Arriva said there are no outstanding orders - and the only delays it has experienced are due to the postal strikes. It said more than 100 passes were unable to go out on Thursday.

Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel said they have fulfilled requests by hand delivering passes.

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