£5m cash granted to set up traveller sites in Leicestershire
Nearly £5 million of Government cash has been made available to provide new sites for travellers in Leicester and Leicestershire.
The money, for 56 pitches, is an attempt to reduce the number of unauthorised encampments.
Housing association Framework is to get £4.3 million to provide 50 pitches, while Leicester City Council successfully bid for £270,000 to provide six pitches.
Both organisations said they did not yet know where the sites would be.
If built, the pitches would more than double the number of publicly managed traveller pitches in the county.
There are currently 20 at Aston Firs, near Hinckley, 21 at Meynells Gorse, in Leicester, and one in Hemington.
The money was welcomed by travellers' representatives but they warned 56 pitches would not be enough to meet demand.
Framework chief executive Andrew Redfern said the association would look to develop five pitches in Harborough and 15 each in Leicester, Melton and north west Leicestershire.
He said: "Deciding where these sites go is always a sensitive issue.
"There are some potential areas but we didn't want to identify any before we knew we had the money because it could lead to concern about something that may not happen.
"People's views are often that travellers are okay but not in their back gardens.
"It is the case that if we can't find suitable sites, we might not get the money.
"I honestly do not know where the sites will be. That is something we will be looking at over the next few months before we sign the contract.
"That's when the planning process will begin.
"We will manage the sites and provide good-quality accommodation.
"This is not just a question of laying a strip of concrete for people to park a caravan on.
"There will be bricks and mortar where we build accommodation for members of the travelling community not moving around – the elderly or children going to a specific school.
"We will also have install proper sanitation, electricity, communal space and play areas as well as buy the land."
City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "The figures bid for by the city council and Framework are based on the sorts of numbers needed to address unauthorised encampments and contribute towards meeting the need identified in the city.
"We are looking at how and where this money should be spent to best meet the needs both of residents and the travelling community.
"A full consultation process would be carried out on any potential travellers' sites identified as part of that work."
Tracy Nedic, chairman of Leicestershire Gypsy and Traveller Liaison Group, said: "This will help because 56 pitches is good for 56 families, but it is not enough.
"Based on the number of gypsy families in and around the areas, we need triple that."I have also heard this kind of thing before and nothing has happened.
"It is one thing to say that there will be new pitches and another entirely to put it into action.
"We would like the sites to be on the outskirts of towns and villages but not next door to tips and sewage works."
From today's
Leicester Mercury:
Thousands of disabled people in Leicestershire may lose blue badge
Thousands of people across Leicestershire could lose their blue disabled parking badges next year under tough new assessments.
Nearly 50,000 people in the city and county have a parking permit, which entitles the holder or their carer to a disabled parking space.
But from next year – under new Government guidelines – occupational therapists employed by the city and county councils will take over the assessments from GPs.
The present system is believed to be inconsistent and it is estimated that up to 5,000 of the badge-holders risk losing their permits when they next try to renew them through the councils.
Tony Donovan, chief executive of Leicestershire Age UK, said: "This is a worrying development. GPs know the health of their patients better than anyone, and this new assessment will just add another layer of bureaucracy and cost. Genuinely disabled people could lose out."
But assistant city mayor for adult services Mohammed Dawood said: "People who truly need their blue badges have nothing to worry about.
"We will make sure that the new system is as fair as possible. However, the new, more rigorous assessments will mean some people will lose their badges. It's unfortunate, but these are Government guidelines."
In the city and county, 22,000 badge-holders automatically qualify because they are either blind, receive the higher rate of the mobility component of the disability living allowance, or they receive a war pensioner's mobility supplement. These people will be unaffected.
However, about 26,000 are currently assessed by their doctor. Based on trials using occupational therapists elsewhere in the country, it is believed a fifth could lose out.
They have all been judged by their doctor to have a substantial permanent disability, which means they cannot walk, or find it difficult to walk.
However, if a council assessment does not support this when they try to renew their badge, they risk losing it.
Dr Angela Lennox, a GP in St Matthew's, Leicester, backed the move, saying: "This is an area which is ripe for reform.
"It's very difficult to refuse a patient who you've known for many years if they're right on the borderline. I think it's right the assessment is carried out by someone independent."
However, badge-holder John Carter, 50, of Leicester city centre, said: "GPs are the ones who have in-depth health records on each patient. Surely they're the best people to decide whether someone is well enough to walk?"
A 65 year old badge holder, of Loughborough, who did not want to be named, said: "There's a lot of abuse, and a lot of people who don't need them, but I'm worried genuine badge-holders could lose out, too."
City disability rights campaigner Andy Morris, 55, said: "I'm completely against this. I'd trust a doctor over a council official."
The price of a badge is also due to rise from £2 to £10. The badges last for up to three years and will be redesigned from next year to make them more difficult to forge.
£2.2m card system to aid bus passengers
Their existing bus passes have electronic chips which will be activated in late September and from that point they will swipe their cards on scanners in Arriva buses to register their journeys rather than just show their passes to the drivers.
They will ultimately be rolled out to enable people to access all commercial public transport by topping up cash on them.
Council bosses said the scheme was being introduced to make travelling on public transport quicker and easier, as well as cutting the risk of fraud.
The OneCard was officially launched by City Mayor Peter Soulsby and deputy mayor Councillor Rory Palmer yesterday.
Sir Peter said: "The OneCards are absolutely brilliant. I know in London people say they would not want to be without their Oyster Cards.
"I hope people in Leicester will be saying the same of OneCards before too long.
"They will make it easy for people to travel by bus so they won't have to dig around for change in their pockets.
"Initially this will be used by existing concessionary bus passengers.
"However, the potential to expand this technology to enable people to access all sorts of services in enormous."
Longer term there are proposals to extend the uses of the OneCard, which is funded by the Government, to allow access to public libraries, leisure centres, universities and school transport and more.
Leicester Deputy City Mayor, with responsibility for transport, Councillor Rory Palmer, said: "Residents are often frustrated the different bus companies operate their own ticketing systems with little or no integration, so the launch of the OneCard is one step to resolving this.
"Smart ticketing is one way we can get more people using public transport in the city and eventually we will link the card technology with other services as well."
City council OneCard project officer Adele Wearing said swiping the cards would register which journeys were made but not who made them to protect passenger privacy.
She also said lost cards could be quickly deactivated and replaced.
She said: "It will help us prevent fraud where people get fake bus passes made and flash them at our drivers. We know it is a problem in Leicester but we don't know the scale of it."
Arriva spokesman Keith Myatt said: "We are delighted to have been chosen as the first bus operator to run the OneCards. It should make loading passengers much quicker."
Bus passenger Keith Sperrey, 62, from Leicester, said: "It's a good idea but I don't think I'd use the other services more though.
"It's about time. Have you not been on the continent? They've got them all there."
For more information, visit: www.leicester.gov.uk/onecard
This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:
Misery on the buses for the blind
Rude and unhelpful bus drivers are causing misery for blind and visually impaired people, according to a survey.
Hundreds of people reported problems with bus services in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as they responded to a survey carried out by Leicester charity Vista, which helps those with sight loss.
Many described particularly bad experiences of drivers failing to stop to let them on board or even verbally abusing them.
Hazel Mayles, of Coalville, reported an instance of having the door shut on one bus while her guide dog was on board but she was not.
She said: "I was left alone, disorientated and holding the lead. If I hadn't have let go of the lead I would have been pulled under the bus.
"I went back a few days later only to find the same bus driver driving past hurling a load of abuse at me.
"Since this I have been afraid to use any bus services."
This was the first survey carried out by Vista into public services, such as transport.
Some 43 per cent of the 2,800 respondents reported problems with bus services.
A woman from Scraptoft, who did not want to be named, described how what should have been a 30-minute journey to Kibworth took more than two hours when buses refused to stop for her.
Sue Allen, sensory impairment trainer at Vista, commissioned the survey.
She said: "It's a pretty big problem and there are a lot of different problems too."It takes long enough for visually impaired people to get from A to B without buses not stopping for them, so it's not very good at all. Once someone's confidence in using public transport is shot it takes a lot of work to get them to do that kind of thing again.
"It only takes one incident to have that effect – it's just absolutely appalling."In her role, Sue said she had rarely had a positive experience of taking a blind person on a bus.
She has contacted numerous companies including Arriva and Centrebus, but says she has had no response.
She added: "The way to go is for us to get bus companies to train their staff."
David Shelley, commercial director at Centrebus, said he was personally unaware of any contact from Vista.
He said: "We provide good training for our drivers and I've not seen anything relating to blind people with regards to the conduct of our staff.
"I absolutely insist all customers' comments come into my office and are reported by myself to our board of directors on a monthly basis."
An Arriva spokesman said: "Our drivers are trained to look for signals from passengers, however they also receive extensive training for passengers with disabilities using our services.
"If there are incidents we would like to know so we can investigate further."
