Harrow’s Labour administration will bring its budget to council on March 10, but Harrow residents currently in receipt of discretionary disabled freedom passes won’t know their fate until a consultation period concludes at the end of April.

However, having seen the initial consultation document that was sent to those in receipt of freedom passes, I sincerely hope that the so-called ‘full consultation’ phase currently underway will be more thorough.

In the document I saw, residents were asked just three questions on discretionary disabled freedom passes, which essentially boiled down to asking them to pick which they found least unsavoury from a list of options that would all in some way reduce the provision of the passes.

Of course, ‘full consultation’ suggests residents will now be asked to provide more detail, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask why, if the administration is really interested in the views of freedom pass holders, they haven’t done this process the other way around.

Surely, if you first find out how many residents really depend on their passes, or if they themselves have ideas on how the system could be streamlined and made more efficient, you could then present them with a more informed and useful list of options?

Labour continues to insist they haven’t made a final decision on freedom passes (and other schemes such as taxicard), and that the consultation process really will make a difference.

I sincerely hope this is the case, as it’s bad enough to even contemplate taking these passes away from some of Harrow’s most vulnerable residents — especially as it clearly flies in the face of one of Harrow Council’s new priorities of ‘supporting and protecting people who are most in need’.

To do so after legitimising it with a lacklustre consultation exercise would be even more inexcusable.

Councillor Stanley Sheinwald
Conservative, Hatch End