When Gordon Brown promised free bus travel for pensioners, I was sceptical but hopeful.
However, when the new Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Councillor Simon Burgess, announced an increase in council tax of 4.8 per cent for Brighton, Hove and Portslade and followed it by welcoming free bus travel for pensioners and disabled persons, he then dropped the bombshell that, as the Government had not financed this "free" travel, the council would have to pay £1.2m towards it out of the council tax.
That money is ours, so how can bus passes be "free" when we have to pay for them through council tax? And what will city dwellers who are not pensioners and pay council tax have to say about that?
-David Smart (a pensioner), Hove
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