Adur Conservatives fully support free half-fare bus passes for local pensioners and to prove it they used their minority control of Adur Distict Council to achieve this concession in its last budget.

Now Labourite Nigel Sweet seeks to throw up a smoke screen (Opinion, April 11) for party political advantage. Mr Sweet lost his seat in the last local elections and may no longer have access to the facts. May I enlighten him?

The bus pass started out as a Countycard, costing £39.93 (not £42 as he says), against which pensioners could claim £13, if they wished, in lieu of travel tokens. The net cost to pensioners was therefore £26.93. This cost was later reduced to £5 and then wiped out altogether when we brought in the free pass this year.

By coincidence, Labour councillor Peter Berry accuses me, in a letter adjacent to that of Mr Sweet, of being incapable of simple arithmetic. It must be obvious to anyone that a figure in my statement had been misprinted and his comment was nothing more than a cheap, tongue-in-cheek jibe.

This would hardly be worth the time answering, except that his letter serves to mislead and our pensioners deserve better than that.

-Coun Jim Funnell, Eastbrook ward, Southwick