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Free bus travel is safe with us
• I AM writing to reassure Freedom Pass users who will have been unduly alarmed by the article ‘MPs back under-fire bus pass’ in last week’s CNJ.
The article suggested that the Liberal Democrats want to end the Freedom Pass which allows pensioners to travel free on the Tube and reflected the damaging and inaccurate message that The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has been sending out to pensioners’ groups.
I would like to explain the real situation. The councils in London pay for the Freedom Pass and every year they negotiate with Transport for London over how much they will pay for it next year. While up until now, they’ve always been able to agree a fair price, TfL can legally impose a figure on the boroughs if an agreement isn’t reached.
This is simply not fair and no other bus authority in the country operates in this way.
A Liberal Democrat peer made a proposal in the House of Lords that the situation in London should be changed in line with the rest of the country so that if an agreement can’t be reached, the same arrangements as the previous year should apply, pending final resolution. TfL should not be able to simply set a figure at council tax payers’ expense.
Cllr KEITH MOFFITT
Leader of the Council
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