It is easy to believe, if one listens to the opposition, that we are hammering the elderly of this borough when it comes to bus passes.

That is most definitely not the case. There are actually more than 24,000 residents of pensionable age in our borough, yet just over 5,200 users of the scheme, of which just over 2,500 pay £36 for a zonal pass.

The Hertsmere bus pass scheme actually provides several types of passes. The most popular is the zonalscheme, which provides borough-wide free travel.

The cost of this pass is £167 each. This means that those who currently pay £36 per year for their pass have the other £131 met from the council's finances.

In former days, when this council had large sums of interest on its investments, the cost of the scheme was met in this way. Now, with most of this investment expended on sports centres and so on the £750,000 cost of this scheme is met by income from Council Tax-payers. For every zonal pass issued, on average, every household in the borough pays almost £22 to subsidize it.

The question we have to ask is do we believe it is unfair to ask every zonal pass holder who is not on benefit to pay just 70p per week for unlimited use of our buses, while the other £131 per pass is met by every Council Tax-payer in the borough?

We believe it is more than fair for zonal pass holders to pay just 20 per cent of the cost of the pass, while every household across the Borough pays the other 80 per cent.

Residents on benefit make up a third of the total of zonal pass holders and they currently pay £18.

There are enough demands on our personal resources to meet the costs of everyday life. For those on benefit, that job becomes that much harder. That is why we have decided to scrap the charge of a zonal pass for a person on benefit from April 1.

There is another very large group of pass holders which also currently utilises the zonal pass. They are residents on benefit who make up one third that's over 1,400 of the total number of zonal pass holders. These benefit pass holders currently pay £18 for their zonal pass.

I know that this has troubled both myself and the Conservative administration for some time. There are enough demands on all our personal resources to meet the costs of everyday life. For those people on benefit, that job becomes that much harder.

And that is why we have decided to scrap the charge of a zonal pass for a person on benefit from April 1.

That means that over 1,400 residents of Hertsmere will shortly receive their zonal pass for free.

This administration cares about all our residents, young and old. And let me assure all your readers that while we stay in charge of this council, there should be no doubt about that.

Cllr Dr Spencer Pitfield,

Portfolio holder for infrastructure and transportation,

Hertsmere Borough Council.