Pensioners today hailed Government plans to bring in half-price bus fares for all senior citizens.

More than 117,000 pensioners in North Yorkshire are set to benefit from the new concessionary half-fare bus scheme, announced in yesterday's Transport White Paper.

The announcement has been hailed by Selby Labour MP John Grogan as a first step towards redressing inequalities between North Yorkshire and areas in the south and west.

The Evening Press last year exposed how pensioners paid varying amounts to catch the bus, depending on which village they lived in.

Pensioner Ron Flemmings, from Gate Helmsley, wrote to the Prime Minister to protest that he had to pay far more for a bus into York than pensioners living further away from the city in Stamford Bridge.

He got a poorer deal because he lived in the Ryedale District Council area, where pensioners only got £16 worth of vouchers every year towards travel.

Today he gave a cautious welcome to the White Paper proposals. "I do welcome it because it will make everyone equal. In Stamford Bridge it costs 95p to get to York, while it costs me £1.90 from Gate Helmsley because the other authorities subsidise pensioners on the buses. I'll believe it when I see it in operation though."

And Joan Merryweather, of the York and District Pensioners' Association, said: "It's good that this half-fare will be for everyone.

There's only about six areas in the whole country where pensioners travel free, and in the countryside some of them don't even have a bus service, let alone a cheap bus fare."

Pensioners in the City of York area get £26 worth of tokens, or can put it towards a £30 bus pass which allows them to travel anywhere in the city for 35p.

Bill Breakell, from the North York Moors National Park, warned that rural pensioners could still face public transport problems.

"The most important thing is to ensure that we have public transport in place."

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