Examination of Witnesses (Questions 238
- 239)
WEDNESDAY 12 MAY 2004
MR KEITH
PORTEOUS WOOD,
MS MARILYN
MASON, MR
IAN ABBOTT,
MS OONA
STANNARD, MR
MARTIN BRADSHAW
AND REV
CANON DAVID
WHITTINGTON OBE
Q238 Chairman: Can I welcome David
Whittington, Martin Bradshaw, Oona Stannard, Keith Porteous Wood,
Ian Abbott and Marilyn Mason to our deliberations today. We are
grateful for you giving your time, and we want to learn as much
as we can about how you regard this Bill that is about to come
before the House and how you view it in terms of the kinds of
pilots that are suggested and the central thrust of the Bill.
I am not going to ask all of you to open up, I think, because
we would take most of the session, so we are going to go straight
into questions. Of course, you can make more general points as
you respond to the questions. Can I ask you to start off? Are
you of the view that this is a Bill that you have been awaiting
for a long time, it is about time it was sorted out who gets free
transport, who does not, who pays for it, what are the rules.
Is it a welcome piece of legislation for most of you? David you
are nodding.
Rev Canon Whittington: Yes. We
are strongly supportive of the principal aims of the Bill. It
is timely.
Q239 Chairman: Why is that?
Rev Canon Whittington: Both for
the reasons that you have touched on, which is that there are
some things that need sorting out about entitlements and so on,
and also for the more general reasons of the Bill to do with good
quality, safe, flexible, cost-effective transport and all of that.
That is equally important in our view.
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