I DON’T know why the monks got cross, but I’ll tell you why I did.

My wife and I tried to use a ‘’sustainable’’ means of transport to shop at the John Lewis store.

Getting there was fine, on a No 9 bus from Rougier Street. Having bought some household goods and then some groceries from M&S we (67-year-olds) needed to use a shopping trolley to travel a couple of hundred yards to get our very heavy shopping to the bus stop.

Having got there we found a No 9 bus waiting. We also found a ‘’First’’ bus employee glaring at us, who said in a very aggressive tone: “I hope you’re not planning to leave that trolley here.” I said I was, to which he replied that it would be akin to theft and littering.

He was immune to my criticism that there seemed to be little thought given to the needs of shoppers by bus. He said that the out of town shopping centre was nothing to do with the bus company which “was here long before the shops”.

At this point I decided to abandon the discussion. The final confirmation of a lack of joined up thinking came when we were told our senior bus passes were not valid on the return journey without payment of 80p each.

It’s not a lot but it left me totally mystified and next time we will be travelling by the much less ‘’sustainable’’ method of using our own car.

Barry Joyce, Jacobs Court, Trinity Lane, York.