Carole’s
tussle with Transport for London (TfL) and Bedonwell School appears to be coming to
a satisfactory conclusion. Largely on her own initiative she won the support of TfL’s Driver Communications Manager and travelled with him on the B11 bus from
school last week. He was joined by councillor John Fuller and the manager of Bexleyheath
bus garage whose presence was unfortunate in one way as every driver would guess
what was going on when they saw him get on a B11 with Carole. As you might
expect no B11 driver gave Carole a problem that afternoon. The garage manager brought
along his ‘Big Red Book’ of rules for drivers and in particular Page 6 which
says there is no ‘two buggy rule’. So you could say that most of Carole’s
problems could have been solved months ago if only all bus drivers looked at the
rule book once in a while. Carole has reported that John Fuller was helpful in
countering one or two of the comments of the TfL guys and local drivers are to
get a reminder about the buggy situation. So everything there is looking good.
The deputy head at Bedonwell School has stepped in to help in a way that the
head teacher never did and as a result Carole’s not yet five year old son,
previously labelled ‘a fussy eater’, has been allowed to join the school breakfast club. He
enjoys that because he can spend an extra hour with his friends. Ironically this
means he can leave home earlier which in turn means it is conveniently timed for
a lift to school by car and - you’ve guessed it - he doesn’t need the morning bus any
more. So thanks are due to councillor John Fuller for standing by Carole, and to
Mrs. Wright the deputy head at Bedonwell School.