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Thursday, November 20, 2008, 08:00
Following last week's Advertiser front page, a large number of residents have attacked Walsall Council's decision to introduce a charge for transporting people with disabilities to their care centres – potentially costing some more than £1,000 per year.
The charges, active from December 1, have been met by widespread criticism by disabled residents, their carers, a disability charity and local politicians.
The Advertiser was inundated with calls from affected residents, including Sandra Muckley, from Bentley, who is registered blind.
She cares for her paralysed husband James, 65, who routinely visits his care centre in Pinfold Street, Bloxwich.
She said: "It will cost us £100 a month with the fees at the centre as well – it is just too much for us.
"It seems with the disability allowance, it is given to you in one hand, then snatched out of the other.
"Disabled people are being discriminated against, we are easy targets."
Aldridge resident Reg Davis has a 37-year-old son with Down's syndrome who visits Hawbush College every week.
Mr Davis said: "I do not even think it is legal what the council has done.
"They are discriminating against people with disabilities.
"First they started charges for day centres and now this charge too.
"It is not fair and I'm not happy about it."
The charges mean users of transport services will pay £2 per journey, amounting to £4 for a return trip – with many care centre users attending five days a week.
The implementation of an 'across the board' charge was questioned by Andrew Moult, development officer for Walsall Disability Forum.
"We have been in contact with Walsall Council about the charging and we are discussing a few anomalies that exist," he said.
"There does have to be a charging system put in place, but it is about making it fair for everybody who needs it, not just introducing a flat rate across the board."
Those affected are being asked by Walsall Council to discover if they are receiving their full disability entitlement.
Margaret Willcox, Walsall Council assistant director of adult services said: "We have had a number of service users and carers contact us this week which has enabled us to make arrangements to review their full entitlement of income.
"We would like to again encourage service users or carers to contact their social worker or care co-ordinator to determine they are receiving their full entitlement of income as many service users receive allowances which include an amount for transport."
■ For more on this issue, see page 4.
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