Photo: James O. Jenkins

Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, today launched a scheme that will mean up to 250,000 of the least well-off Londoners can now benefit from half priced bus and tram travel.

He was joined by Peter Hendy, London’s Transport Commissioner, Karen Buck MP and representatives of groups that will benefit from the initiative, which will mean that all Londoners on income support are eligible to receive the benefit, including lone parents, carers, the long-term sick and disabled people.

The discount will mean that those on the lowest incomes will pay only 50p for a single bus journey, half the £1 adult Oyster fare and a quarter of the £2 cash fare. From September 30th this year it will be even cheaper as a 10 per cent across-the-board fares cut is also introduced. This will make a single bus journey just 45p for those on income support.

The scheme follows an agreement signed earlier this year by the Mayor, Transport for London and Venezuelan Oil Company PetrÓleos de Venezuela Europa. This provided a 20 per cent reduction in the price of fuel for London’s bus fleet, which will be passed on to cut fares for some of the least well off Londoners. At the same time, London will provide Venezuela with advice and technical expertise in fields of city management in which London is a world leader such as transport, town planning, tourism and the protection of the environment. (more…)

Last month, our community lost one of its greatest champions, and we mourn his loss. Ivan Hazel was one of those characters who make a community- partly out of sheer personality, and partly because of his decades of service. He was one of the generation of Caribbean elders who, whilst never forgetting the island he came from, also threw himself with unrestrained enthusiasm, into British society. The range of mourners who attended his funeral at Fernhead Road Mothodist Church, alongside his extended family and friends, read like the annual report of Westminster’s Council of Voluntary Service- Queen’s Park Family Support Unit, Paddington Law Centre, the Yaa Asentewaa Centre, Dutchpot Lunch club, the church itself. Ivan touched many lives. (more…)