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Hartfordshire, UK - Pensioners' pressure groups in Borehamwood are stepping up the campaign for free bus travel and they have Tony Blair's Government in their sights. Several groups from the town are joining forces to form the Hertsmere Elderly People's Forum, and yesterday sent a letter of complaint to Prime Minister Tony Blair. The campaigners are angry that pensioners in London, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are given free bus travel, while those in the rest of England are only entitled to half fare bus passes. One group, Transport Rights for All Pensioners on Public Transport (TRAPPT) has written to high-profile lawyer Imran Khan, who represented the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, asking him to take up the case. TRAPPT chairman Frank Ward claims the treatment of English pensioners breaches the Human Rights Act, and plans to challenge it in the European Court of Human Rights. "Pensioners outside London have effectively been relegated to second class citizens," he said. He wants to bring in Mr Khan to ensure the case receives as much publicity as possible, putting extra pressure on the Government. John Brown, from the Borehamwood Pensioners' Rights Association, is supporting the legal action, and has complained to the Commission for Racial Equality about the same issue. "I am being discriminated against because I am English, pensioners in other parts of the UK get free travel and I do not." The association has collected hundreds of signatures on a petition calling for free bus passes, and is considering joining a national "day of protest", organised by the National Pensioners' Convention. Carol Jones, from the Borehamwood Community Advocacy Project, said there were so many pensioners' groups in Borehamwood, it made sense to form the Hertsmere Elderly People's Forum as an umbrella organisation, that could voice their shared concerns. "We are going to write to Tony Blair and explain to him what we have had to do to get travel for pensioners in Hertsmere." She hopes to build on the recent campaign to bring back free-to-use bus travel for pensioners in Hertsmere. Mrs Jones added that people in Borehamwood were pleased Hertsmere Council had given them the chance to take up free-to-use bus passes, even though they had to pay more for them, and praised the way the council had introduced the new passes quickly.
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© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
