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Make my day, Boris. Give elderly free 24-hour travel
• RICHARD Lucas writes that Boris Johnson’s promise to restore travel concessions to needy Londoners remains unfulfilled (Thanks, Boris, for the kick in the teeth, December 5).
As does the promise to give the elderly free 24-hour travel all week – a promise repeated several times without setting a date for it to commence. I’ve written to the mayor twice this autumn asking for such a date. But, surprise, surprise, I’ve had no reply.
Many elderly people remain dismayed about this as we’d prefer to go out and travel about before 9am on a weekday at a time when the risk of being a victim of crime is at its lowest.
Does Boris care? Perhaps he baulks at the cost? Yet this could be substantially reduced by issuing free travel permits to those who really need them – not to people like Ken Livingstone, for example – so cost cannot be an excuse.
David Cameron has made many mistakes which could cost the Tories the next election, but putting Boris in as mayor is surely the biggest howler of all.
Londoners now see the big mistake they made by voting Boris in and are unlikely to repeat this mistake at the next general election.
Well done, Boris! And no, Richard Lucas, you’re not the only person in London aware of the mayor’s crass attitude to the needy. Millions of needy Londoners are now only too well aware of the kind of man Boris is and the kind of party the Tories still are. And we all have the vote.
So prove me wrong on this, Mr Mayor, and bring in free, unrestricted travel permits as a right to all who really need them – and do this soon.
Then, and only then, will David Cameron’s star once again begin to rise.
HARRY G MOSS
Manor Road, N16
• UNITE members have been lobbying London Mayor Boris Johnson in a campaign to win equal pay and safe working hours for London bus workers. This follows a series of strikes earlier in the year.
Unite, the UK’s biggest transport union, has also learnt that Transport for London Surface Transport spent £16million less than budget in the year to date, largely because of lower bus network contract prices.
While thousands of Unite members are forced to work 60- and 70-hour weeks to make ends meet, TfL has saved millions driving down costs by suppressing wages. According to Unite, this money would go a long way towards settling this dispute and averting further strike action.
Our members do identical jobs but their pay varies significantly from company to company. We are demanding equality in pay for all London bus workers and we will be taking our message to Mayor Boris so our members’ demands are heard.
Mr Johnson, who described London’s bus drivers as “the world’s finest”, has recently published his 10-year transport plan in which he is ordering a review to implement further savings on bus matters. This, in turn, may result in further wage cuts. We want to ensure this does not happen.
It has not taken long for Mayor Boris to show his true colours. He is cutting major transport projects, ordering “further savings” in London Buses and is now looking to sell off the publicly-owned East Thames Buses. The Mayor appears to have greater regard for the privateers’ profits than to developing a motivated workforce, and responding to the needs of the travelling public.
Labour London Assembly members Valerie Shawcross and John Biggs have been raising questions with Mayor Johnson over the effects of contract tendering on drivers’ wage differentials.
Unite is seeking £30,000 a year for a 38-hour week.
MARK DI-TORO
Unite, N1
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