Department for Transport: Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee appointment

The Department for Transport has announced the appointment of the new representative for the Welsh Assembly Government on the Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC).

Christine Court MBE has been appointed to represent Welsh interests on DPTAC and will bring to the Committee a combination of experience and expertise in disability and transport.

All appointments are made on a personal basis, rather than on the basis of affiliations. A full list of members, with biographies is attached to this press notice.

Notes to editors

1. The Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) is a statutory body established under Section 125 of the Transport Act 1985, and to advise the Secretary of State for Transport on matters affecting the transport needs of disabled people.

2. Membership is limited to a Chairman plus twenty members, at least half of whom must be disabled.

3. Appointments are made for 3 years and are subject to OCPA reappointment rules. Christine Court's appointment commenced on 30 October 2009.

4. DPTAC can be contacted through its Secretariat at:

The Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DR
Telephone: 020 7944 5873
Email: dptac@dft.gov.uk
Website: http://www.dptac.gov.uk/

DPTAC membership at 30 October 2009.

Christine Court

Christine has lived in South Wales in the Llynfi valley since 1974 when her husband moved back to his family home.

She has worked most of her working life as an Occupational Therapist in the NHS in Wales, working with people with many disabilities to ensure they could live an independent life with dignity and quality of life.

She obtained an MBE for her services to the NHS in Wales and the latter part of her career she travelled across Wales looking at the Therapy Services.

She is a Magistrate and also a member of the South Wales Probation Board.

Christine has been an active member of Care &Repair in Bridgend and a member of both Care & Repair Bridgend and Cymru Boards.

She has been a member of the Bridgend Local Health Board, chaired the Never Too Old Action Team and the Champion for the Older Person. She is interested in the health and wellbeing of the older person and ensured that their views on services and way of life was considered, particularly on issues of public transport and access to services and leisure facilities

She is interested in the welfare of animals and a member of Porthcawl Animal Welfare Society.

She travels across Wales to the diverse countryside from the mountains, coast, parks and cities and towns and leisure facilities, and would wish that people of all ages whether they are disabled or able bodied can access and enjoy them.

Ann Bates

Ann was a member of the Rail Passengers Committee and Council (now Passengerfocus) and worked closely with train operating companies, rolling stock leasing companies, Network Rail and the Strategic Rail Authority.

Since becoming Chair of the Rail Group, Ann has built on these relationships and now sits on the Access for All committee which monitors the distribution of the UK Government's £370m accessibility fund. She gives advice to the UK Office of the Rail Regulator and works with the Rail Safety and Standards Board. DPTAC Rail Group has also led the way in the UK on the negotiations around the new EU Interoperability agreement for PRM's.

Ann was also a non-executive director of a National Health Trust running 2 busy District General Hospitals, advised Transport for London on rail issues on their Independent Disability Advisory Committee and has professional involvement with the Trade Union Disability Alliance.

Ann has been a member of DPTAC since 2002 and is also the Deputy Chair. She also sits on DPTAC's Olympic, Aviation and Maritime Working Groups.

David Finnegan
David has spent eighteen years working in the access field with Merseytravel Passenger Transport Executive with responsibility for designing inclusive infrastructure and implementing the DDA throughout the organisation. He has undertaken other disability work through WIRED (Wirral Information Resource Equality and Disability), the Spinal Injuries Association and is also a member of the Access Association. David has an interest in environmental issues and is an inventor. He is a wheelchair user and has been a DPTAC member since 2002.

Tomi Jones
Tomi has worked in transport for the past twenty years. Initially he was Transport Supervisor for Social Services in Dyfed and then became Transport Manager for the new unitary authority of Ceredigion. Seven years ago he was instrumental in setting up an integrated transport unit for the authority which was one of the first in Wales to adopt this holistic view of transport. Two years ago he moved to work for the Welsh Local Government Association as their National School Transport Coordinator. He was a founder member of the Community Transport Association of Wales and has been its Chair. He has also served on the national executive of CTA UK and served for many years as their vice chair. This is his second term as a Member of DPTAC.

Marilyn Lister
Marilyn Lister is Studies Manager at the Audit Commission where she has worked since 2000. She worked previously in local authority leisure services and for the Cabinet Office Chartermark Awards. This is her first three year term as a member of DPTAC.

Alan Norton
Alan is Director of Assist UK (formerly the Disabled Living Centres Council), the National network for advice on independent living equipment. He is also a board member for the Disabled Living Centre in Manchester, and Chairman of Bury Shopmobility. He is a member of the North West Committee for Community Legal Services and involved in the Greater Manchester Police Respect Programme. He is also involved in many voluntary sector activities providing services and inclusion for disabled people in the North West. This is his second three year term as a member of DPTAC.

Dai Powell

Dai Powell is Chair of DPTAC. He is also the Chief Executive of Hackney Community Transport, a large scale, award winning social enterprise with headquarters in Hackney. HCT Group and its subsidiary, CT Plus C.I.C, operate transport and training services from five depots across London and two in Yorkshire. Dai has been Chief Executive since 1993, leading the organisation as it has grown from a small Community Transport provider into a social enterprise with truly national ambitions. Over the past decade, HCT group has grown by an average of 30% per annum, building to a turnover of over £19.6m in 2008/09 and a workforce of nearly 500 people.

Dai is currently Chair of the Community Transport Organisation (UK), a Social Enterprise Coalition Council member and a Social Enterprise Ambassador. He was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to disabled people.

Keith Richards
Keith is Head of Business Development & Consumer Affairs at Association of British Travel Agents with special responsibility for access issues. Appointed in 2002, he was a member of the Department for Transport's Air Access Group responsible for producing the Code of Practice - Access to Air Travel for Disabled People. Keith is also a member of the European Civil Aviation Conference Facilitation Working Group on People with Reduced Mobility. He chairs DPTAC's Aviation Working Group.

Will Bee

Will Bee was until September 07 Wales Director for the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and their lead Director on Transport. In this capacity he was responsible for the production of the DRC's Code of Practice to the new duties of Transport Operators created by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005. Will went on to write 6 practical guides to the DDA for individual modes of transport. Will's former career was largely in the field of community regeneration where he worked for community organisations and the Bristol Regeneration. Since the closure of the DRC Will has set up his own consultancy business where he aims to link his knowledge of disability with his experience of regeneration and community empowerment. As a disabled person himself Will is a regular user of public transport services, in the UK and overseas.

Helen Smith

Helen Smith works as Director of Policy and Campaigns for the disabled motorists' charity Mobilise where she specialises in raising the profile of disability transport issues. Before joining Mobilise in 2007 Helen worked as a television reporter for ITV Anglia where her most notable story was exposing Norwich's bus service for being completely wheelchair unfriendly. Helen writes the motoring column for the newspaper Disability Now and strongly believes that every disabled person should be able to claim their right to independence.

Richard West

Richard West is a freelance consultant on Information Technology. He has worked in the IT profession for 40 years and is a Member of the British Computer Society.

Richard was a member of the Rail Passengers Committee Eastern England from 1989 to 2001 and appointed to the Rail Passengers Council from 2002-05, where he chaired the Council's Accessibility Working Group. He is a past Chairman of the British Computer Association of the Blind and is Secretary of his local Branch of the National Federation of the Blind.

Richard is a frequent user of bus and rail and is committed to working for improved accessibility of transport for all.

Julian Fiorentini

Julian Fiorentini works as a senior manager at the Public Carriage Office which licences London's taxis and private hire vehicles and drivers on behalf of Transport for London (TfL). One of Julian's responsibilities is running the Assisted Transport Services department which provides, amongst other things, TfL's contribution towards London Taxicard and the Capital Call service. Julian has been involved with the Disabled People's Movement since first working in an organisation run and controlled by disabled people and is an advocate of the Social Model of disability.

Heather James

Heather James has widespread experience of developing accessible transport initiatives in the private, public and voluntary sectors. As a former Councillor in Brighton & Hove and a member of the Federation of Disabled People, Heather helped to introduce significant public transport and highways improvements. Within the private sector Heather worked on major regeneration projects and as Communications Director devised and developed successful consultation programmes. Heather has a range of complex but not necessarily obvious disabilities and fully understands the transport constraints and difficulties faced by disabled people.

Andrew Probert

Andrew Probert is a policy consultant specialising in transport and disadvantaged consumers. He originally worked as a town planner in before moving into the advertising industry, with British Rail and Austin Rover as clients. He subsequently undertook a major research project on transport and marketing at Cambridge University (where he also coxed in the Boat Race) before become Senior Policy Advisor at the Countryside Agency and the Commission for Rural Communities, working on local government and disadvantage. His later work for the National Consumer Council and Consumer Focus concentrated on transport for the disadvantaged. Andrew is a member of the Association for European Transport and a board member of London TravelWatch, whilst also being a keen advocate of disabled people being active in local organisations and sport.

Jagroop Kaur

Jagroop Kaur completed her degree in Psychology, at The University of Manchester, in 2008 gaining a 2:1. At university she was founder and chairwoman of the ABLED society which aimed to enhance disabled students' lives at university. Following her achievements she was elected as the Open Place Representative on the Disabled Students' Committee for the National Union of Students. Her role involves raising disability issues, including accessible transport. She is also a part time post graduate undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Law. She is delighted to become a member of the Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee and is eager to start her role

Asif Iqbal

Asif is Deaf and uses British Sign Language (BSL). He has a wide experience of Deaf and disability issues and is Media/Project Manager for Deaf Parenting UK. Deaf Parenting UK is the first ever charity run by Deaf parents for Deaf parents since October 2007, representing the needs of deaf parents in the UK. He secured Deaf Parenting UK as Winner of TFPL's first Social Impact Award 2008, Berlin, Germany, voted by the world business leaders for charity/third sector on innovative use of knowledge and information management. He was also secured Deaf Parenting UK as one of the 30 winners for Talk Talk Innovation Award 2008 and as Runner up the Guardian's Public Services Award 2008 for Equality & Diversity category.

He is also sit as Board member of the Disability Employment Advisory Committee (DEAC) for the Department for Work and Pensions since 2006.

His career is vast, ranging from a previous Project Manager for Parentline Plus which represented for 25 millions of parents in the UK, a former Trustee for UK Council on Deafness in 2005. He had been involved with Local Authorities and NHS on senior level, representing the needs of deaf, disabled and BME communities as well as liaising, consulting with them and the organisations that work with them.

He is well known as effective networker, team worker, having been involved in a range of local and community projects, ensuring deaf people have access to services without barriers.

Olav Ernstzen

Olav Ernstzen is a barrister who, for some years, has been a member of the Bar Council Diversity Committee, and is involved in disability awareness and accessibility issues for the Middle Temple and the Bar, for which he has arranged and chaired workshops and meetings. In 1999 he was elected Chairman of the Camden & Islington Low Vision Services Group, and currently Chairs the Islington Local Involvement Network. He has just completed work on a Directory of Services to support independent living for residents of his Borough with a visual impairment. In 2005 he was appointed a member of a Borough Council Group monitoring performance of the Disability Equality Scheme for the Chief Executive. Olav is a member of his local Mobility Forum and, since 2006, has been a member of the Transport for London Independent Disability Advisory Group (IDAG) for which he advised on Door to Door transport until early 2009, after which he specialised in the accessibility of the London Transport Network.

Claire Lamb

Claire Lamb, aged 35 and lives in the North East of England. Claire has sixteen years experience in the public, private, community & voluntary sectors and is a former Registered Adult nurse. Claire has a M.Sc in Environmental Management Practice that included conducting a group transport project. Claire has worked part-time in the transport industry as resi-rail co-ordinator; is a member of MDF The Bipolar Organisation and National Mind so is keen to raise the profile of mental health disability in relation to transport issues.

John Ballantine

John Ballantine is a retired solicitor who is a member of the Equalities Law Sub-committee of the Law Society of Scotland. He is heavily involved in disability and accessibility issues and since January 2009 has been a member of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland. He is the Treasurer of the Scottish Accessible Transport Alliance and a member of the Edinburgh Access Panel. He is also a member of the Communities of Interest Support Network and of the Edinburgh Disability Equality Forum. He is an Honours Law Graduate of the University of Glasgow.

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