CAMPAIGNS I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN TO HELP PEOPLE UNDERSTAND BLINDNESS AND MAKE LIFE ACCESSIBLE FOR BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED PEOPLE
The article below was taken from a booklet issued by the Community Trade Union December 2007 the National League for Blind & Disabled is part of this union.
“My ultimate aim is to get free or at least cheaper off peak travel on all train and ferry services for disabled people and pensioners”
Battling for better rights for blind people has become a way of life for courageous campaigning Community member Alex Scott.
Alex, who is registered blind, struggled for 12 years to win the campaign to get free travel for all blind and partially sighted people on buses, trains and ferries throughout Scotland and he finally succeeded eight years ago.
"It was a long campaign but very worthwhile because it has made a huge difference to a lot of people," says Edinburgh man Alex, who was awarded an MBE for his sterling efforts.
"I am very pleased and proud that I was able to achieve that. Over the years I've written hundreds of letters and traveled many miles, but if I had been campaigning as an individual I doubt I would have had the same success.
"The union's strong campaigning reputation with MPs and others was one of the reasons why I was so successful." Alex's own experiences of the inequalities of the travel system which used to be free in only some areas across Scotland, made him decide to launch a campaign in 1987.
A union member for the past 27 years, Alex quickly became an active campaigner and soon joined the Scottish Regional Council where he doggedly pursued his aims with no less than four successive Transport Ministers and eventually won the support of some 200 MPs.
Spurred on by the success of his achievement in 1999 he went on to campaign and achieve the same free travel rights for disabled people and senior citizens and Alex hasn't hung up his campaigning hat yet.
"There are still many campaigns to fight - my ultimate aim is to get free or at least cheaper off peak travel on all train and ferry services for disabled people and pensioners, so I'll will keep trying until I achieve that too," he pledges.
I have taken part in the successful campaign organized by the RNIB to get the higher rate mobility allowance for blind and severely blind people and was down at Westminster with the deputy NLBD on 4 December 2007 and returned on 15 October 2008 as part of the RNIB for Scotland.
The other campaigns I have been involved in is to have all buttons on trains on trains standardized so all the buttons are all in the same position in all the trains and to be coloured coded for easy access for everybody.
The NLBD is also taking part in the campaign against shared surfaces such as Exhibition Road Kensington, and I believe is being looked at by Edinburgh City Council in the re-development of Niddrie Road Edinburgh which is a very busy road with three disabled units and a lot of families in the area. We are against this on the grounds of safety and believe that pedestrians and cars should be separated and must campaign against where ever it happens in the United Kingdom.
http://www.community-tu.org/
CAMPAIGN AGAINST XMAS RAIL SHUTDOWN 2008
I fully support this campaign against the annual rail shutdown over 58 hours at Christmas time as for example there is a big number of football matches and other sporting events all over the country on boxing day and people travelling using cars and coaches polluting the atmosphere which is totally unnecessary.Unlike our European colleagues who have a train system running throughout the year saving congestion on the roads, stress and the environment and people should contact their Westminster MPs to help in this lobby to take our rail transport system into the 21st century.
