A few words from Calvin Casino - Barnet Eye Barnet Person of the year!

Wow I cannot believe it. I am the Barnet person of the year 2016.

Thank you Roger, the False Dots & the Barnet Eye. Ladies & Gentlemen. I accept the award "Barnet person of the person". I wanted to go to the Midlands Hotel Pub in Hendon but I didn't have the chance because I had to stayed at home to be there for my mum as she is not feeling well. Maybe next time I'll come to the pub in Hendon. Anyway I am very grateful that I am the winner of the Barnet annual awards 2016. Barnet person of the year.

Originally I wanted Roger & Theresa to win the award but they nominated me as they insisted. That was kind of them. Without help from Theresa & Roger, I wouldn't had my freedom pass back. God bless them for their incredible work of digging the true information of how disabled freedom passes was stopped by Barnet council & their bureaucrat partner Capita. I guess you know who am I now. I cannot give my actual name (because of safety reasons) but you can now know my other name. My name is Calvin Casino (it's my nickname & I only use when I write & perform music). I am the one who wrote to Roger back in March this year when my freedom pass was stopped unexpectedly. Go read the article if you don't know my story. http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/how-barnet-council-treat-disabled.html?m=1 …

 I you know the whole story. I am behind of this. I am the reason why freedom pass fiasco was started with me. Followed by Jenny & the others. You see, we live in the world when things happened unexpectedly. For instance, the UK voted to leave the European Union & Donald Trump winning the US presidential election. We live in this ever-changing world. When it comes to the rejected freedom pass scandal in Barnet. It was not reported nationally & internationally. It was reported locally & London-wide. Since I got my freedom pass restored back in May. I still hear nothing from the council even I told Sam & Christine back in October at Burnt Oak who works in Barnet council that I would like compensation & perhaps apology. But that's okay because I had already the refund from TFL as I spent 8 weeks of traveling on the bus & train & I had to top up the Oyster card every-time when the balance runs out & adding the money into Oyster card. My refund from TFL was £34.10. I remembered using discount bus & tram pass photo card. At the time without using my freedom pass between March & May, I didn't want to go public (I did not want to speak any press) because I don't want to be subject to abuses even if I am speaking the truth. It's not like I made it up.

Since I got my freedom pass back from Barnet council & Capita, I started to write to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan back in September as I wrote at my college. I had finally made him aware (as I know Mr Khan was not aware that Barnet were rejecting disabled freedom pass with no reason whatsoever) even he didn't write back to me (someone reply to me in his behalf). After-all I voted for him because he did included the protection of freedom passes (even he forgot to include disabled person freedom pass as he wants older freedom pass to be protected). None of other London mayoral candidates got my vote. Not even Zac Goldsmith. I glad the freedom pass fiasco is over so I am going to make sure it doesn't ever happen again. Especially when freedom pass ends in 2020 with expiry date 31st March.

I thank my mum, Roger & Mrs Angry for helping me to get my free travel pass reinstated once & for all. Once again I thank Roger & Theresa (Mrs A) for the digging the truth that Barnet & Capita were purposefully & wrongly rejecting everyone's freedom passes. The number was 230. That includes me & Jenny. That information was released by London Councils (who issued the freedom pass cards). I am grateful that I am the Barnet person of the year 2016. Thank you so much. God bless. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
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Calvin Casino is a Barnet resident. As a person with special needs he is legally entitled to a freedom pass. This was illegally withdrawn without notice earlier this year. He found out when the pass did not work at Finchley Central Tune station. Due to his condition this was an extremely stressful experience for him. Calvin contacted the Barnet Eye for help. We published the story. Immediately we were attacked by a right wing blog close to the Conservative administration in Barnet, who accused us of making the story up and claiming we were an unreliable source of information. To my amazement, it turned out that Calvin was not alone, hundreds of other people had the same experience. Fellow Barnet Blogger Mrs Angry had even seen a young disabled person have the same problem on a bus, but hadn't realised what was happening until she saw my blog.  Mrs Angry did  a huge amount of digging and uncovered the whole story, with some legal input from Julia Hines from Age UK Barnet.

We chose Calvin as person of the year because without his input, Barnet Council would have got away with an action that was shown to be illegal. The only way to combat tyranny is for good people to speak up. In Barnet, we have active bloggers and campaigners who know how to ensure that the council is held to account. Calvin is an example to us all. If we just sit back and hope someone else  pipes up, then bad things come to pass.That is why  Calvin is such a great choice.