On Tuesday night, we made solid ground toward what would be our first major victory, persuading Reading Borough Council to reintroduce the concessionary bus fares scrapped by the ConDem administration.
As SOS Secretary Kat Dixon presented our petition on the subject, Councillor Tony Page promised that the council will be reintroducing these fares for disabled people. Great News!
However, there is urgent campaign work still to do. The Councillor stated that the Council are 'reviewing' the reduced allowance for concessionary fares for older passengers. It is vital that we win the reinstatement of these fares too, for the quality of life of older residents as well as for the sustainability of volunteer-reliant services including the Royal Berks Hospital. The Council will make their decision THIS MONDAY 11TH JULY.
This means we must aim to convince them in JUST 6 DAYS.
A template letter to councillors will be sent round asap. Please send this to your Councillor, to the media and pass it to your friends and contacts to do likewise.
Please also if possible attend the Council meeting on Monday at 6.30pm.
If you can collect more petitions, please get in touch and do so.
There is a full article about this here: http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2011/07/02/52826-free-travel-may-be-back/
Then on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers to co-ordinated industrial action against the cuts to their pensions, increased contributions and longer working life. This was the biggest co-ordinated strike for 5 years, the first strike by the Association of Teachers & Lecturers EVER and came hot on the heels of the biggest trade union demonstration (March 26th) in British history!!
In Reading most schools as well as Reading College and other public services were affected and the strike was well observed. A big thankyou as well as 'well done' to all those who refused to work on June 30th!!
Around 500 people marched through Reading town centre, the biggest march in Reading for many years. Then in the evening SOS campaigners and striking workers celebrated this first major industrial action against the ConDem's attacks at the SOS Party at the Blagrave Arms. I want to send a big thankyou to the very supportive Blagrave Arms and to the fantastic musician Eddie Chilvers who kept us all singing and dancing till we fell down - please support both of these in the future because they are supporting us!
Call for Support:
We need you to volunteer. Just an hour or so, whatver you can manage.
We need people to;
- Leaflet doors and put fliers and posters in shops/cafes/pubs etc
- Gather petitions on stalls and at work and in the neighbourhood
- Visit NHS related meetings and gather information
- Help gather data and do data-entry, and contact our supporters more easily.
PLUS there is up 'n' coming opportunities to be involved in major music and theatre events as a part of the campaign. From acting to publicising, lighting to sound and all kinds of other stuff, if you want to be involved, get in touch!!
If you want to get involved in anyway, please let me know! This fight is up to all of us!
