I’M writing to invite all your readers, old and young, to request and sign the Love The Bus Pass petition. The campaign is non-partisan and aims to get all major parties contesting the General Election to pledge to retain the England bus pass as a univerversal entitlement free at the point of use.

The first step on the way is to get 100,000 pen-on-paper signatures on the petition by early September (currently we’re on 42,000). We’ll deliver these to No.10 on September 10, when we also lobby our respectivs MPs.

Here’s the problem – while all major parties pledged before the 2010 General Eelection to retain the pass, high-ranking Coalition politicians soon started to call for reform: in 2011, Brandon Lewis MP stated that the scheme had never been affordable, albeit this was something his party hadn’t wished to publicise before the election, for fear of ‘alarming’ voters.

Nick Clegg then called for a ban on ‘millionaires’ joy-riding on the buses, which would save next to nothing, but is a neat way of destroying the principle of universal entitlement and bring in means-testing, with the bar being lowered over time to exclude more and more pass-holders.

In mid-2012, the press reproted that the Prime Minister, if returned in 2015, would legislate to abolish the pass in its present form – again, in January, he refused to commit to retaining it.

The mobility of over 11 million older and blind and disabled citizens is at risk. We must ensure that politicians of all parties understand that they attack the bus pass at their electorial peril!

Readers can contact me to request forms by email (richardvworrall@yahoo.com), or by phone (01922 641084), or by post (46 Winn House, Walsall WS2 8NW), giving your name and postal address, and campaign material will be posted to you.

Richard Worrall, Love The Bus Pass Campaign Co-ordinator, Walsall