The bureaucrats so beloved by Roger French of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company have just got to learn of the problems he says the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) has created for mums with double buggies. The DPTAC advises the Government on the transport needs of disabled people.

We have good news for mums. The new regulations introduced to help less-able bus users do not prevent Roger's company ordering or operating buses that can carry double buggies.

There have been some changes to the way buses must be built but for a reason. Unless there is a handpole in the wheelchair area, users

are not as safe as the DPTAC wants them to be. Some wheelchair users have fallen over and out of their chairs where there hasn't been some form of handpole.

If there isn't a pole, there is a very large gap between a handrail and the first row of seats. Many bus users, in

particular elderly travellers, need to have something to hold on to. By having the handpole, the bus is better for a lot of passengers and safer for wheelchair users.

But, honestly, Roger and mums, it is still possible to design a bus with a handpole to take double buggies and wheelchairs. It just takes a bit more care in designing and building them.

They already exist around the country -one of our DPTAC committee travelled on one in Newcastle upon Tyne only the other day and met a mum with a standard double buggy happy to say how good the bus was.

-Peter Lee, DPTAC, London