Local Disabled Lose Bus Passes

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 17th Jul 2002

Local disabled groups and MP Vincent Cable have appealed to the council to review its policy on 'freedom passes' for the disabled under which large numbers are losing their entitlement.

The problem stems from a very rigid interpretation by the council of the government's guidelines which say that passes should be restricted to those on the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance' 'or near to it'.

Vincent Cable said: "we have a ludicrous Catch 22 situation where people who are very seriously disabled won't be able to use public transport while those who are fit enough to use public transport are deemed not to be disabled enough. The government's regulations are unhelpful but the council is being inflexible and insensitive too. I was promised a review of policy and of borderline cases by the end of May but there has been a deafening silence".

Vincent Cable said that two groups of disabled people are involved, the partially disabled and the mentally ill: "my understanding, from clients at the Mereway Centre and elsewhere, is that passes for the mentally ill are being severely rationed depriving many of these people of their mobility. The cost to the council is low - about £300 per permit. This is real penny pinching".