London Bus Driver Refused To Take My Disabled Daughter

Persons with disabilities and their families have already so much to contend with, that discrimination by bus drivers is adding to their problems.

Not only should the transport authority, TfL in this instance be fined, but also actions should be taken against the respected bus drivers, then and only then will they take their responsibilities on-board.

Training is one aspect, but if the drivers think they will get away with it then some will, it should also go on their employment record.

There is already insufficient space on many forms of transport, as some only have one wheelchair space, when there should be at least 2 or more.

Same Difference

A woman says she was left feeling “ridiculed and belittled” by a bus driver who refused to let her young disabled daughter board.

Mother-of-five Tameika Pieternella often travels by bus in Abbey Wood, south-east London, with two-year-old D’Naiyah, who has brain damage.

She says the driver would not get out a ramp for her daughter’s buggy-style wheelchair, while another simply drove off, leaving them at the bus stop.

Transport for London has apologised.

Louise Cheeseman, TfL’s director of bus operations, said: “We are very sorry that Ms Pieternella and her daughter have experienced this.

“We would like to reassure her that making travel easier for Londoners with reduced mobility is one of our top priorities. We have one of the most accessible bus networks in the world and all bus routes are served by low-floor vehicles with an access ramp and dedicated space for wheelchair users.

“Bus drivers have received…

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Government imposes new restrictions to fight Omicron as first cases found in UK | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Masks made mandatory in shops and on buses and trains, while new arrivals must take PCR tests

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The wearing of masks in shops and on buses and trains was never officially withdrawn, but the mandatory aspect was. However, some transport operatives made their own rules, such as, Transport for London, where they stated it was a requirement to travel on their buses and the Tube, but was it ever legally enforceable. Perhaps it was not, but the public should have respected the wishes of the operators.

In other parts of the UK, except England, Scotland and others did retain the mandatory aspect. I feel it was a grave mistake from Boris Johnson, one of many, when the mandatory aspect was withdrawn. For those not wearing masks are not acting with respect to their fellow travellers.

In fact, in many aspects social distancing should also have been retained.

The coming of Omicron is a great worry, as should be the coninuance of COVID in England, but this appears to nhave been ignored by many in England, so please do not ignore Omicron, for if you do Lockdowns will have to be reimposed. In fact, the reimposition has never gone away and would always be brought in, but perhaps, too late, as other measurers have been.

At least, the mandatory reintroduction was not delayed and the travel restrictions also.

Yes, we have to learn to live with COVID, but not at the expense of lives lost. Lives are much more important than refusing to live with a few restrictions. So accept the restrictions and in doing so save lives.

The same is also relevant in having the COVID vaccinations and where eligible the COVID booster and any others which will come along.

 

Source: Government imposes new restrictions to fight Omicron as first cases found in UK | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Furious northern leaders demand free vote on slashed rail plans | The Independent

‘Everybody in the north is getting a bargain-basement solution’ says South Yorkshire mayor Dan Jarvis

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Once again the North is getting less than promised and the East even more so than the West.

For the West is getting the full HS2 while the East is getting none and the Midlands is also getting everything. But neither the West or the East are getting HS3.

If this was London and the South both would have been proceeded with, for the South get while the North does not.

This is no where ‘levelling up’, the North have been the poor relations of the South for far too long and the West has always been better treated that the East. This is expressly so for the Old Midland line from Leeds through Sheffield down to London. For under British Rail it was always subjected to Third Hand rolling stock, no Electrification and much more while the West received. Only with the arrival of EMR was there new rolling stock, station improvements and others, etc

Network Rail the public arm of the railways are still not as ‘fit for purpose’ as they should be, which HS2 would have solved, but will the watered down version be.

From past experience I doubt it.

 

Source: Furious northern leaders demand free vote on slashed rail plans | The Independent

HGV driver shortage: remote-controlled lorries could prevent future logistical nightmares

‘Teleoperated’ HGVs combine the efficiency of automation with the safety of human oversight.

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Much needs to be done and remote controlled lorries could be eventually a solution, but safety has to be paramount. Also remote control yes, but who would then unload the lorries, surely that would require additional staff at the point of delivery, so is it financially viable?

Source: HGV driver shortage: remote-controlled lorries could prevent future logistical nightmares

HS2 minister fails to rule out that eastern leg between Leeds and Birmingham will be scrapped | Yorkshire Post

The minister in charge of HS2 failed to rule out that the eastern leg will be scrapped.

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The whole HS2 project has been and still is a Love and Hate project for many due to various opinions and various degrees of opinions.

Whether this is a good or bad project I will leave to others, but what I wish to look at is both the North/South divide and then the West/East divide.

Take the North/South there is a vast difference in investment both potential and actual over many years and while objections and supportive comments are always submitted on the the projects, it does feel that in more cases than not the South Projects seem to move forward and are completed, while this does not seem so for those in the North.

I can remember many years ago that with the Euro line there was to be a link to the North which for one reason or another did not take place. But the South, especially around London have had Cross Rail for one and many upgrades and new projects re the London underground.

As to the West/East there was the rail electrification where the West Coast  was electrified but not the old Midlands line from St Pancras to Leeds was not, but investment was made to the Kings Cross to Newcastle.

So even in the East, the Middle misses out as it may well do so re HS2 and where is the mention of HS3.

Source: HS2 minister fails to rule out that eastern leg between Leeds and Birmingham will be scrapped | Yorkshire Post

After A Year At Home, Children With Disabilities Deserve Priority Vaccination

Again persons with learning disabilities are getting a raw deal, why is this always so?

If not adukts it is children, why all this discrimination, for they are citizens as well and we should all be treated equally

Same Difference

They disappeared more than a year ago and many are still out of sight. When the pandemic hit, 53,000 under-18s in England with disabilities that made them vulnerable to coronavirus began to shield away at home.

Kept off school long after their classmates went back, and away from friends, they have found their childhoods put on hold. And while the vaccine rollout gave high-risk adults some reprieve in the new year, those aged under 16, who have not been eligible for any vaccine, are still living in limbo.

Yet we have barely heard a thing about disabled children’s plight through the coronavirus crisis – a silence that has not been helped by the faux-reassuring narrative that “no healthy child” has died from the virus. And now that the UK regulator has at last approved the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, this blind spot is becoming…

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E-Scooters ‘Not Safe’ Without Audible Signals

Yes, audible on e-scooters would be good, but more imoertant is the attitude of the person with the e-scooter for pedestrians.

I say this for my experience of persons on bycylces, some have bells but mainly it is their vocal out bursts. For those I have come across feel they have the right of way be it road or pavement. When I wish to cross a road, I will use a crossing when there is one, but in many instances there are not so I have to cross the road. Now in my 70s I am not as nimble on foot as I used to be and cross where I see the road is clear. But my slownest of step does on some occasions mean traffic may come while I am still crossing, Cars extra will slow down and allow me to cross rather than peeing their car horns, scaring me.

But not so with the cyclists I experience, they do not slow down, they shout very loudly and angrily for me to get out of their way, rather than excepting my slowness of mobility.

You could nargue that they have the right of way on the road and you may be correct, but if they do not show consideration people will get hurt.

But on the pavement, surely the pedestrian have the right of way and I nhave experienced on many occasions, more so han on the road with cyclists shouting and ringing bells, and many occasions when they have not done so, but pass me at speed very close to me, the first I know is when they go flying past.

As yet I have to experience my first encounter, maybe that due to COVID I have not been out for more than a year.

So while bells will be good on e-scooters it is the attitude to other users of the same space, which I feel is way more important.

Same Difference

A visually impaired woman from London says e-scooters are not safe enough to be used across the city as they do not have audible signals.

The signals, which alert pedestrians to the silent e-scooters, will not be installed for at least two months.

Transport for London (TfL) said in May the e-scooters would have audible warning systems that could be used without riders adjusting their grip.

It now says that all e-scooters on the rental scheme are fitted with bells.

The RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) said e-scooters posed potential risks to blind and partially sighted people because “they are fast-moving, difficult to detect, and are often ridden on the pavement despite this being illegal”.

London’s walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, said the trial could not be stopped to fit them.

He said: “We can’t stop the trial before everything is brought in because we need to continue…

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Anger at proposals to scale back HS2 connection | TheBusinessDesk.com

In my 70 years of being in Yorkshire, especially Sheffield, rail development has always left us behind, but I believed that this would not be so with HS2. However, it seems that past experience is coming true again.

London appears to get anything it wishes for, but not the East of the Pennines.

No mention was made of Manchester so I assume that HS2 will be being extended up the West of the Pennines, so a double blow for the East.

So, much for the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, broken promises again, but not for London.

 

Source: Anger at proposals to scale back HS2 connection | TheBusinessDesk.com

PIP Claimants Wrongly Accused Of Failing To Return PIP Forms

Again and again the DWP say one thing and then do another, but take the attitude that they are never wrong.

The DWP and that means the Government need to realise that they are dealing with people and not inanimate objects.

They should be transparent and honest, but this is a Government department and unfortunately it is a miracle if they are.

It is not as though not owning up about being wrong will cause no lasting damage and harm, for it will.

The DWP are ruthless in instigating sanctions and once a persons loses a benefit, it can not be reinstated when the wrong has been admitted.

Yes, the claimant can make another claim, but the loss of benefit income will not be regained and even worse, if a Motability vehicle is involved. For once the vehicle has been returned it can take months to obtain another, thus causing much distress to the claimants.

The DWP and the Government need to come into the real world and not play with the feelings of claimants.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

The DWP has mistakenly been sending out letters to PIP claimants telling them their PIP has been stopped because they failed to return a review form, the Disability News Service (DNS) is reporting.

Back in March, when the pandemic first began, many PIP claimants were told that they did not need to return their PIP review form and that their claims would be automatically extended.

However, it appears that last month an official at the DWP did a check for late return of forms and sent out letters to an unknown number of claimants telling them that their PIP had been stopped and, in some cases, that they had to return their Motability vehicles and might have to repay some of the money they had received.

One claimant who received a letter told DNS that she had originally been told by the DWP…

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‘It really knocks my confidence’ My life as a wheelchair user at Wales’ train stations | ITV News

Builders of train stations “need to think more about disabled people”, according to a campaigner from Cardiff

Source: ‘It really knocks my confidence’ My life as a wheelchair user at Wales’ train stations | ITV News