Concessionary travel passes

Dear Mr Eriksohn

FOI Ref: 5667

I am writing in connection with your request for information which we
received on 29 January 2009.

Your request for information has been passed to Miss Julie Mills -
Electoral Services and Land Charges Manager, for response. We will
contact you if it is felt that your request may fall under a requirement
for a fee to be levied regarding the request for information. This fee
will need to be paid prior to the request for information being answered.

Every effort will be made to respond to you within 10 working days of
receipt of your request. However, if because of the nature of your
request further investigations are necessary, we will respond within the
20 day maximum entitled to us under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In the meantime, if you have any further comments relating to your
request, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Jean Roberts
Complaints Officer/PA to Head of Democratic & Legal Services
Wycombe District Council, Queen Victoria Road
High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 1BB

Telephone: 01494 421202 (to 3.30 pm)
Fax: 01494 421583
Email: [email address]

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Dear Mr Eriksohn

I am writing to confirm that I have received the email which you sent on
29th January, and the following is my formal response to your FOI query.

I think it would be best if I explained to you exactly what this Council
does offer in the way of concessionary fares for the mentally disabled, and
if you have any further questions, you can come back to me.

In line with the Transport Act 2000 and subsequent legislation, this
Council offers a free concessionary bus pass to everyone in our district
who is aged 60 or over, or classed as disabled, as defined by S93. (7) of
the Act itself. We have not “adopted” any additional definitions of
eligible disability, and to the best of my knowledge, have no plans to do
so in the immediate future. I should inform you however that following some
criticism of the Act's wording of the final criteria, we have slightly
amended the wording of the definition of mentally disabled, which we hope
is more acceptable.

The Act's definition of disabled is as follows:

· Persons who are blind
· Person who are partially sighted
· Persons who are deaf
· Persons who are without speech
· Persons who have a disability, or have suffered an injury, which has a
substantial and long-term effect on their ability to walk
· Persons who do not have arms or have long-term loss of the use of both
arms
· Persons who have a learning disability, that is, a state of arrested or
incomplete development of mind which includes significant impairment of
intelligence and social functioning.

Our wording for the last bullet point has been changed to read:

Has a learning disability i.e. a disorder which affects a person’s ability
to take in, remember, understand and express information, and which may
make it difficult for that person to read, write, spell or solve problems.
We do not specify that a person must be registered disabled, but we do
occasionally ask for support from a doctor, nurse or similarly qualified
medical practioner

We do offer a limited amount of transport tokens annually as an alternative
to the bus pass to anyone who comes under the above definition, and this
takes effect from 1st April 2009.

I am actually on leave from tomorrow for three weeks, but if you have any
further queries about this , please contact my assistant, Jill Haines on
[email address]

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request an review of our decision,
you should write to us at Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe, HP11 1BB. If
you are subsequently not content with the outcome of your complaint, you
may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.

1. Does your authority provide concessionary travel passes to those
individuals registered with their local Social Services department
as disabled on the grounds of being a mental health user or
survivor?

2. If your authority does have such arrangements why was the
decision taken to extend the scheme in this way and what
arrangements are in place?

3. If your authority does not have such arrangements does your
authority have some other arrangement beyond the statuary minimum
to provide passes to those with mental health issues?

4. If your authority does not have such arrangements why was the
decision taken not to extend the scheme in this way and has
consideration been given to extending the scheme in this way in the
future?

5. Would it be possible to provide copies of any relevant policy
documents you may have.

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****** DO NOT PRINT THIS EMAIL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY ******
****** DISCLAIMER *****

Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the individual and are not necessarily those of Wycombe District Council.
This email and any files transmitted within it are strictly confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or
entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this email you must not copy, distribute or use the
communication in any other way. If you do receive this email in error please contact the sender as soon as possible and
delete the email and any attachments. Wycombe District Council may monitor the contents of email sent and received
via its network for the purposes of ensuring compliance with its policies and procedures.

Wycombe District Council has scanned this email and attachments for viruses but does not accept any responsibilities
for viruses once this email has been transmitted. The recipient is responsible for scanning emails and any attachments for viruses themselves.
This message has been scanned for viruses by MailControl, a service from BlackSpider Technologies.