General Chat

Take the Winter Fuel payments & bus passes from the pensioners & give free travel to all under 16s.
Yes, I know the theory is that it would reduce the number of cars doing the school run, but would it?

At least when the pensioners are on the bus we know what they are up to.

Remember Monty Python, Hell's Grannies? All those milkmen I keep in the spare bedroom do.

So you,ve Let the "Firemen" go then Sharron. :-D :-D :-D

Do you remember I had a new shed with free erection?

Ah yes, So you keep them as spares in there then. :-D :-D :-D :-DDon,t tell Prickly or she,ll be wanting an Invite. ;-) ;-)

I doubt it.the lazy little children won't walk or go on a bus if one of the family has got a car and time to drop/pick them up.

Also don't forget the pensioners who have cars will use them if the bus pass was taken away. :-) :-)

My thoughts exactly Sue.
As Sharron says at least if pensioners are on the bus, you know where they are, although I would take issue with the idea that you know what they are up to.
On a serious note, If you have busloads of children, there will undoubtedly be bad behaviour. Are they going to bring back conductors to try to keep the peace?
If they are, the poor souls have all my sympathy.

It won't make any difference. I doubt it is cheaper to bring them to school by car now and people can't possibly send their children to the nearest school and spend a bit of time with them themselves to get them up to this standard that they are supposed to reach.It's a good thing they don't all have to be the same size and colour as well!

Now you have started me!

As I see it, a large majority of children live within walking distance of their school, especially at primary age & Yes, I know there are exceptions.
What happened to walking your child to school until they were old enough to go on their own.
I remember vividly having a 20 minute walk twice each day in each direction, plus a half hour wait after the younger one left for the day until the older one came out.
Effectively nearly 2 hours of the day taken up ensuring that the kids got to & from school.
When they went to secondary school, they had a half hour walk in each direction, because although we could see the school from the house, it was on the other side of the river, with no bridge, so they had to walk into town in order to get across.
Can´t see many kids doing that today.
A bus pass would have been useless because the school wasn´t on a bus route.

I wasn't too happy when I saw that in the papers this morning.

Why is the younger generation 'so precious'. We've paid our own fares since children, we've paid our childrens fares and now we look as though we might have to go back to paying our own fares again - and those of other peoples children. we've been through tough times but it seems to have been forgotten. The three day weeks, the rotating powers cuts (always off when you get home), the long strikes, the Poll Tax.........

It is another policy being thought up by those living in cities. Take our free passes away here and give them to the children and we will lose our buses. Our little rural bus runs fairly full nowadays - if we have to pay to ride it then we might as well take our cars. One return bus trip = 2 hours parking charge (it's expensive in our nearest town).

More deliveries for the supermarkets.

They do need that extra bit of profit though, bless 'em.

At the moment our bus is pretty full during the day and the customers are mainly of pensionable age. Many of these pensioners would not get out if they didn't have a bus pass, many don't drive and wouldn't be able to pop into town two or three times a week. while in town of course they possibly have a cup of coffee and buy small purchases. the shops would notice a difference if bus passes were not available. I would actually be happy to pay say £20 a year for my pass, it would still be good value for money.

Pensioners who use the buses now, unless they live in a rural area, will continue to use the buses.

My only query is - do not kids under 16 already go free with a special pass (think in London) and this can be taken away if they misuse it or misbehave.

Yes and under 11's free on the underground.

There is now a report on the BBC website :".....Transport minister Norman Baker said claims in the Daily Telegraph that the Lib Dems were developing the idea were "simply not true". "..................

Not sure what you mean DC but I can't see pensioners in this area paying over £5 return to go into town twice a week. They will only go when they have to. This is a semi rural area.

London led the way with the free bus passes for the over 60's - I remember having to escort my mother on the bus as she was so embarrassed and didn't want to be recognised.

I was actually quiet digusted this week by the amount of primary school children being driven too school.

Because of the lovely weather this past week I made the decision to leave home 20 mins earlier and take the 40 min walk to work as I was starting letter. I couldn't face getting on the bus jammed packed with buggies and children which bone idle mother take for 2 stops and decided it would be wonderful extercise for me.

I have to pass 2 primary schools, the roads and pavements where absoloutely packed and at both schools and at one was a horse box/van >>>Yep who takes their children to school in a smelly horse box/van when the only live a 10 min walk away from the school? I know they do as I know of the person the horse box/van belonged too.

So to me not a wonderful idea to winter fuel payments and buspasses away from OAP , get these children walking more.

Yours outraged of Ches'hire

:-|

Where I live in Menorca, both schoolchildren & pensioners get bus passes for reduced fares. Pensioners pay about a third. Not sure about the students (not all kids, just those travelling to & from school)
Mind you. from October to April, the buses are so few & far between it´s just an academic exercise.

The idea is not to take away OAP bus passes but to standardise free bus passes for children.

At present London children have free bus travel. When introduced it was found that it did reduce car travel and accidents.

Bus travel for children is far from free around here, infact children have to pay full adult fare at peak times, which naturally is just those times of going to and from school.

Our local bus is another that's largely supported by pensioners during the week and they would find it most inconvenient if they had to pay every trip.
There is no doctor, dentist , post office or shop within reasonable walking distance, so the free bus pass is much used on our bus.

Gwyn