Letter: We refuse to be treated like peasants

On November 8, the Star was kind enough to print my letter regarding the disingenuous ambiguity around the full restoration of the South Yorkshire elderly train concession. The letter raised the question of the honesty and probity of our mayor.

It asked him to defend his probity by explaining why Northern Rail are happy to provide free rail travel for Greater Manchester’s 600,000+ pensioner and disabled for £1.2m (less than £2 a year each), but the same company wants more than £18m for 300,000 South Yorkshire pensioners. Four weeks later no such explanation has been provided. Neither have any notes or minutes from claimed meetings with Northern been provided. As pensioners, we serfs clearly remain well beneath the mayor’s concerns to the point where he refuses to answer what should be easily dealt with and highly relevant and urgent questions.

Since my letter was published we have learned that as a direct result of fuel poverty there have been about 230 extra winter fuel deaths in South Yorkshire, nearly twice the national average with most deaths in the 65- to-84 age group. I’ve brought to Dan Jarvis’s attention, both as MP and mayor, that free access to the railways, as well as the buses, helps the elderly stay fitter for longer, improves their physical and mental health and reduces the ill health associated with loneliness and alienation. It’s not the whole answer BUT it’s an important part of the solution.

Our elected mayor’s response? A derogatory reference to “keyboard warriors” and his trademark “I was saddened by” rather than address the issues. Having, as he says, campaigned “long and hard on this issue” with the result that avoidable deaths increase might be a cause for reflection and humility for those who consider “How a society cares for the elderly and most vulnerable is an important yardstick by which we should be judged.” (Barnsley Chronicle, December 6), without positive action after nearly six years it’s the hollow rhetoric we’ve become used to.

It’s no coincidence that the West Midlands, London and the North West which includes both Merseyside and Greater Manchester (all of which provide concessionary train travel for the elderly), have much lower excess winter death rates than South Yorkshire’s, which has long abandoned their elderly in favour of the expensive trappings of office in our austerity-free town halls.

Here’s my final question Mayor Jarvis; exactly how many more avoidable excess winter deaths are acceptable before the elderly of South Yorkshire get the same benefits and the opportunity of a longer life that millions of other respected and valued pensioners have in more enlightened parts of the country?