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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 1 June 2007

OAP's must stay

• IS the Pensioners Freedom Pass under attack?
Phil Taylor, a leading Tory councillor in Ealing, has argued that the Freedom Pass should be re-targeted to the very old. What one assumes he means is the scheme should be cut back. So hardly anybody is able to use it.
Daniel Moylan, the Tory chairman of the London Councils Transport & Environmental Committee, puts it clearer when he says the cost of the scheme is too high.
Knowing that a frontal attack on the Freedom Pass would be very unpopular they now intend to use back-door methods and attack the reserve scheme with the aid of a
Liberal Democrat peer (Lord Bradshaw).
The reserve scheme allows the Mayor Ken Livingstone to protect the Freedom Pass if London councils are divided in their support.
There can be no doubt the Freedom Pass has had a positive effect on the lives of pensioners, particularly for those on restricted incomes, giving them access to their friends and all the attractions of our great city.
The scheme is also environmentally friendly, encouraging people to travel on public transport rather than in cars.
It is strange that a chairman of an environmental committee, whose party has just been urging us to go green by voting blue, should now be back-pedalling so quickly.
EDDIE ADAMS
Alliance for Green
Socialism
St Lawrence Terrace, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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