PROTEST: Michael and Carol Tipping and Charlie Bateman are protesting against the withdrawal of concessionary car parking passes.

SINCE January Bromsgrove's pensioners have been struggling to be heard.

They have lost their free swimming passes, seen the funding for Amphlett Hall withdrawn, and now they face the abolition of their £30 parking passes.

All this, on top of higher than inflation council tax rises and soaring utility and food bills, led to breaking point at a meeting of the Older People's Forum two weeks ago.

More than 200 turned up to put their point forcibly to the chief executive because they feel that their local council has turned its back on them.

Older People's Forum member Charles Bateman said: "They say they are a listening council, but they do not listen. Or if they do they don't take any notice. As soon as we heard about the plans to stop the parking passes we tried to talk to them, but they were not interested."

Seventy-year-old former production engineer Michael Tipping said: "We are not just complaining about the loss of the concessions for our own sakes because we are relatively fit and active. It's for those pensioners who can't walk very far, and disabled people who are going to be affected more than anyone.

"It's not only the money either, although we could not afford £300 a year. That's fair for those who work in the town and park all day every day, but it's extortionate for us who only pop into the shops or the doctor's for a short stay a couple of times a week."

The pensioners believe that if the decision is purely financial, then the council is short sighted and have got their sums wrong.

Mr Bateman, aged 75, said: "What they have done does not make financial sense. By scrapping the concessions, they have immediately lost £90,000 with no guarantee that they will make it up. More people will be parking on the roadside or going to other towns to do their shopping."

The pensioners want the passes reinstated with the following options:

Raise the limit for car parking passes from aged 60 to 65. This cuts out most of those still working

Limit the times and days it can be used - possibly just weekdays or mornings or afternoons only

Increase the price to £40 or £50 a year Sue Anson, the information centre manager at the Bromsgrove branch of Age Concern, said: "Some elderly people can afford to pay, but there are others who live out of town who desperately need their cars. They are often alone, struggling to keep their homes, eat properly and pay their bills, in order to keep their only link to the outside world."

She said any pensioner who is struggling to make ends meet should contact the office on 570490.

According to a new report by Age Concern more than a million older people nationwide are shut out from society and ignored by government policy.

The charity is warning that severe exclusion among older people is a significant and pressing problem that will not disappear without urgent government action.

Out of sight, out of mind shows that severe exclusion is about more than money, crossing the boundaries of social class, race, gender and financial status.

New research for the charity also reveals that the risk of exclusion increases with age - leaving many older people without access to things that most people take for granted, such as a decent home, close friends and regular company, stimulating activity and access to local services.

Age Concern's director general, Gordon Lishman, said: "It is often said that we should judge the society we live in by the way we treat older people."

The elderly complain that the council wastes money. They highlighted the fact that in Bromsgrove District Council's budget for 2008/09 the expenditure under corporate services jumps from £558,000 to £1.2m. A spokesman said this was the result of an equal pay initiative forced on them by the Secretary of State.

Opposition leader Peter McDonald said: "The Conservative-led council has wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds on IT and taking on extra staff in the communications department. The result is less services for the most vulnerable."

Councillor Margaret Sherrey (Con-Furlongs), cabinet member responsible for parking in Bromsgrove, said: "The council has to make difficult decisions to balance its books and fund our residents' priorities. Unfortunately, one of those decisions was to remove the concession for over 60s parking, but this decision has, to some degree, been offset by the introduction of the free national bus travel scheme for over 60s from April 1."

Cllr Sherrey confirmed that central government funding was available for this scheme, but that it was difficult for the council to determine whether it would be sufficient.

"Any shortfall will be met by local council tax payers of all ages," she added.

7:19am Thursday 27th March 2008

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