HOW dare Alan Gerault insinuate (Letters, July 28) that if the majority of pensioners can afford to spend money on ‘booze, fags and Sky TV they should pay for their bus journeys’.

I would like to say that I am a pensioner who neither smokes, drinks or has Sky and if we were asked to pay our fare, I for one and many like me would perhaps only be able to go out once or twice a week.

I am pleased that you are a lucky pensioner and do not have that many health problems and you are able to get about using your car. Many of us do have health problems and do not drive or own cars and the free bus service is a way for us to get out and about going to the shops, library and in some cases the doctors.

• ANN BLOOMBERG, Branksome Wood Road, Bournemouth