"FREE bus travel for the elderly" is rapidly becoming a vexed question in Ryedale, or so it would seem according to Readers' Letters in the Evening Press.

It sounds a good idea, but that depends on where you live. In Sinnington, and probably other villages on the bus route (128 Helmsley to Scarborough) the buses are impossible for disabled people to access. The steps are too high and both hands need to be free to use the handrails on boarding and leaving the bus, so it is impossible to carry any shopping.

In Sinnington we have virtually nothing to help mobility for older people who need it. We have no village taxi, no shop, no post office, no bank, no doctors' surgery. I have written twice to the owner of the 128 bus service. MP John Greenway has also written, and got the same negative results. It has been pointed out the cost of replacing the old buses with new easy-access ones would be prohibitive and unjustifiable because the service is underused. Of course it is: it is underused because we oldies can't get on and off. For whatever reason, the drivers are not allowed to help.

I am told modern, low-loading buses now operate in the evenings for the convenience of young people. This is discrimination. What is the point of the Government making a law against discrimination if observing it is optional?

Mary Isaacs,

Friars Hill,

Sinnington, York.

Updated: 11:16 Tuesday, April 26, 2005