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Pensioner Travel (Tyne and Wear)

I will try to be even more concise. My right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East and Wallsend (Mr. Brown) and my hon. Friend the Member for Tyne Bridge (Mr. Clelland) did not talk about the way in which the scheme applies to disabled people. It is perverse that the impact of free travel for disabled people, which was in the Budget, might well be that we find that the care bus service will be withdrawn from Tyne and Wear. Let me read from an e-mail that I received from a man living in my constituency who has severe problems due to muscular sclerosis. He wrote:"““No-one I speak to on the bus can actually believe that it will be stopped . . . as threatened—they cannot contemplate their lives without it. It is a mental torture for them to be worrying about losing their independence, when many already have enough to worry about with illness and disabilities . . . As our MP I hope you can let those with the power to solve this realise that they are not playing with pound signs, they are playing with the independence of already vulnerable people who deserve to be treated with respect & dignity—not left hanging on a thread of threats!””" That is what we are talking about with this cock up. We are talking about bus services that should be a real bonus for our people actually becoming a detriment.