SIgn the petition to stop restrictions on Freedom Pass usage

 There are proposals under discussion in London to restrict and remove Freedom pass usage. The argument being made is that it is too expensive for London in the current climate of budget pressures. A petition has ben launched to oppose this very regressive change. The figures used, as far as I am concerned, are not realistic. The impact of the change will be huge. I don't believe that the savings will be realised and it will cause congestion on the roads and overcrowding on trains, buses and tubes. It will also impact charities and voluntary organisations which rely on unpaid volunteers for help.. 

I assume that the figure quoted is based on the cost of the journeys currently made by Freedom Pass users. The assumption is that all of these journeys will be made. I do not believe they will. Let me give one example. During the football season, I walk nearly a kilometer from my house to the 384 bus stop at Apex corner, to take the bus to Hadley FC. I do this as I do not need to pay for the journey. If I had to pay, I would probably drive, as would many other fans my age, causing congestion on Barnet Lane every other Saturday. A car journey is more convenient, but as the bus is free, it means that I generally use it. I also regularly have to visit hospitals etc due to various medical issues. I nearly always take public transport, but this would add hundreds of pounds a year to my costs. I would probably drive to a lot of these appointments. When I drive to Barnet Hospital, I avoid paying what I consider to be expensive parking fees. There are suburban roads nearby that I use to park on. I would expect to see a massive increase in parking in such roads, resulting in massive expansions of CPZ zones. 

Then there is the effect on hospitality businesses in London. I generally meet friends 2-3 times a week, see bands etc. I would definitely get out less, if Freedom Pass usage was restricted. These businesses, many of which already are sruggling would take a huge hit. 

As to the effect on London's roads. More cars and congestion would be inevitable. There is already a huge shortage of car parkings spaces and the pressure on these will get worse. I had to drive my daughter to a hospital appointment in Victoria yesterday for 10am. The journey took approx 90 minutes. I would expect this to rise to nearly two hours if people switch from using public transport to cars. This makes London a far less attractive place to do business. 

One of the arguments about Freedom passes is that many people still work and are using the pass to go to work at well paid jobs. As you cannot use a pass before 9.30am, this is only true for people who can work flexible hours. For many who do start work after 9.30am currently. they may well decided that if they have to pay, they will travel earlier and this will actually add to congestion on already busy rush hour trains. I regularly do a slot on a radio show in Croyden. I take the 9.43 train from Mill Hill. This trains is actually very busy, mostly with people taking the first train that can be used witha freedom pass. My assumption is that some of these people will move to earlier, even more congested trains. 

Then there is the issue of people whop volunteer for charities in London. I volunteered for many years at a homeless daycare centre near Victoria, called The Passage. Many of the volunteers were people who travelled using a Freedom pass for free. I have recently enquired about restarting volunteering, as I have more time on my hands. If I had to pay to attend, I am afraid to say I won't do it. A years worth of volunteering would cost over £500 per annum for me. I love the work the charity do, but not quite that much.

When the costs are quoted, these are notional costs cobbled together by an accountant. All of the buses, tubes and trains will still run. They will just be emptier and less efficient.  AS so often happens, accountants know the cost of everything and the value of absolutely nothing

Please sign the petition here. I have started to wonder why we elected Sadiq Khan and a Labour council in Barnet. It seems that whenever they do anything, it involves giving some group in London that doesn't deserve it, a good financial kicking, and the hospitality industry gets hit by stray bullets from the driveby shootings. 

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The Greatest hits of the Barnet Eye week - Day 2 - The Freedom pass scandal

 In day two of our series, I look at something that clearly shouldn't have happened. One of the things I'm proud about is that people trust me. People tell me things. Sometimes, I see something and I don't know what to say about it. I don't know what to do. On April 4th 2016, I got a message from a young man I know quite well. I consider him a friend. I've not read this blog since it was posted and it is just as shocking today. The young man lives with autism, he had worked at my business as part our work experience programme and he felt I was someone he could trust.

The message he sent me told of how he'd been trying to get the tube and found that his Freedom Pass had been cancelled. This was a stressful situation, he had no idea what was going on. When I received his message, I made some enquiries and checked that he was happy with me publishing it. Please read this, it is the full, unedited transcript of his message. So what had happened? Barnet Council had illegally cancelled hundreds of vulnerable people's Freedom Passes and not all had been told. A fellow blogger saw a similar thing happen on a bus. They did not realise what was going on until they read my blog. I had made enquiries and it immediately became clear what had happened. I then received another email, from a mum who was the parent of friend of one of my kids, who again was vulnerable and had suffered a similar humiliating experience. 

After discussions with my young friend and his mum, we agreed that he'd go public and share his story in a Youtube video. Within hours, hundreds of people had watched his video. It was a brave thing to do and I was reticent about publishing it, but it was his idea and he insisted. It is worth watching to understand just how a stroke of a pen at a Council meeting can have such awful consequences. 

The local and national press got involved and by May 15th, Barnet Council had apologised and reinsatted the Freedom passes for all involved. I proudly posted this blog celebrating. 

There is a little subtext that I've not revealed before. A few days later I was at a Council meeting and I collared one of the Tory Councillors responsible for the fiasco. I said that I was pleased that they'd acknowledged their mistake and reinstated the passes. His response shocked me, I was speechless for a few seconds. He said "I can't stand your holier than thou pontificating, everyone knows you only publish these stories to further your own political career". I was stunned. Not least because at the time I didn't belong to a Political party at the time and had no interest in standing. His comment was pretty much the inspiration to rejoin the Lib Dems and stand again in Mill Hill, but at the time it was the last thing on my mind. I was infuriated by the comment, I replied "You do realise that the young man who exposed this is a friend and did work experience and the girl who I featured was at school with my daughter. Please don't judge me by your own standards". That was met with "We all know what this is really about".  I'd expected a bit of contrition, but there was no such thing.  I have to be fair to the Barnet Tories, then Leader Richard Cornelius caught up with me and said "We got that wrong and we are sorry" and former leader Brian Salinger said to me that he was horrified by the situation and it would never have happened on his watch, but there genuinely were members of the administration who were totally unrepentent. Sadly they are in abundance in the current regime running the council.

The final blog in that series was rather full of pathos. It  was a sort of sad postcript, where the young man who started the story came to say thanks for getting it sorted. 

As with the Friern Barnet story, I'm incredibly proud of the role this blog played in getting this sorted out. We broke the story and we made sure it had legs. Other local people, bloggers and the press made it impossible for the council to maintain it's inhuman stance. I am proud that people trust me. I am proud that I've helped a few people. I had a small tear in my eye as I put this together, I sometimes wonder why people trust me and why I have to do these stories. Surely, with 63 Councillors, getting paid a minimum of £10K a year, I shouldn't need to do this as the adminstration councillors should not pass such rules and the opposition should properly scrutinise these changes. But it is left to me, a dyslexic punk rock guitarist to do this. Something is not right, is it?

Barnet Council finlly admits it was wrong to cancel Freedom Passes and apologises

Has Hell frozen over? Barnet Council has actually admitted it made a mistake cancelling Freedom Passes for the most vulnerable people in the Borough! Oddly this admission and the apology were contained in the forward to the annual parking report!
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Foreword
It has been a busy year for the service and we have made good progress in improving the
parking service for residents and businesses. Keeping traffic moving smoothly and safely and
improving the borough’s air quality continues to be a top priority for the borough.
In 2016/17 we introduced CCTV cameras at a number of locations to deter poor driving and
to take enforcement measures when it is captured. The sites that were chosen for the
installation of CCTV cameras are those where poor driver behaviours can cause congestion
as this is detrimental to our Traffic Management responsibility. CCTV was also installed at
school entrances to ensure the safety of school children when entering and exiting the
school gates.
Unfortunately we made a significant mistake and cancelled a number of freedom passes for our most vulnerable residents. The Council apologised unreservedly for its mistake, and we
have worked hard to improve the process for accessing freedom pass customers in the future.

We remain committed to the key priorities outlined in our Corporate Plan, the Environment
Commissioning Plan and the council’s Parking Policy.
I hope that you find this annual report informative and that it helps to demonstrate the
achievements, purpose and future direction of Parking services across Barnet.
Councillor Dean Cohen
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This story was broken by the Barnet Eye on 4th April 2016. It gives me great satisfaction that my efforts as a blogger have directly resulted in the restoration of the passes and the admission by the council that they have made a "significant mistake".  Having been derided for years by the various councillors in the Conservative party, referred to by Conservative MP Mike Freer as a "One Handed blogger, you know what he's doing with the other hand" whilst he was council boss, and harrassed by other Tory councillors when objecting to this, it vindicates the work I've done and that done by the other Barnet bloggers. I doubt any of us will ever get a civic award for our services,but it is justification enough to see this!

Barnet Council Freedom Pass consultation - please respond

At long last Barnet Council have launched the public consultation on their proposals for disabled persons freedom passes.

They claim to be bringing their interpretation of the eligibility criteria in line with the Care Act 2014.

The Care Act 2014 emphasises the requirement of Local Authorities to promote wellbeing, prevent or delay further needs developing, and independence.

How does cancelling a Freedom Pass achieve any of these, I wonder?

The link for responding to this consultation is below. Please circulate this to all disabled/vulnerable people and carers who may be affected.

https://engage.barnet.gov.uk/commissioning-group/disabled-persons-freedom-pass-consultation/consult_view

We already know what their intentions are, given the illegal attempt earlier this year to cancel them.  We need to ensure that our voices are heard and we support those within ur community with disabilities and limited mobility. 

Why we must keep the free bus pass for pensioners

There is much talk that the Conservative Party are planning to abolish the free bus pass for pensioners. The argument is this "Why subsidise people who can afford to pay for it?".This to me is the type of logic which completely alienates me from the Tory party. Firstly, well off pensioners have paid for it. They've spent a whole lifetime contributing to the tax system, putting in far more than they take out. They are not "getting something for nothing" as some Tory commentators like to say, they are getting something back for a lifetime of work and contribution. Secondly it is good for motorists. The buses will run anyway. Some pensioners who now take the bus because of the pass, will drive, causing more pollution and congestion. Thirdly, the London economy will suffer. Many pensioners use their bus pass for days out, which stimulate and support the London economy. Tory commentators claim that if they want to go out, they will anyway. This is completely untrue. My dearly deceased mother got a free bus pass on her 60th birthday. Until ill health prevented her, she'd have a day out on the bus every Tuesday (when the weather was fine). Trips to museums, shopping centres, parks, down to see the river Thames, trips to visit friends, family and former places of work. She'd also regularly get the bus to Burnt Oak, because "the mushrooms were better there" or to Golders Green because there was a shop where she liked the smoked salmon. She'd go down to auctions, visit special events and sometimes just take a particular bus, because she liked the view from the top deck.

All of these journeys would inevitably involve a beer or cup of tea and a sandwich along route. She'd often inform me she'd found a new pub which did an "amazing roast beef sandwich for £1" or the like in the strangest of places. She'd  buy the Evening Standard on the way back and tell us all about her day out. Sometimes she'd just take a sketch pad and draw wome sight she'd seen the previous week, which would later adorn the wall of her flat.

Was she unique in finding this pass to be life enhancing? I doubt it. I know many elderly people who see it as a ticket to a new lease of life. By my maths, approx 30% of the population must be of "bus pass age" and they must make a significant contribution to the economy. It is in all of our interests for them to be active and to spend money in shops. If anyone thinks passing "costcutting" measures which restricts this activity is a good idea, then they are unfit for public office. Mind you, given what the Tory politicians in Barnet are trying to do to the residents of sheltered housing, if there was any group lobbying for such an obnoxioux policy, I'm sure our beloved Barnet mob would be somewhere near the front of the queue.