WHEN is a month not a month? I have just received a child's monthly bus ticket from First York bus company.

After inspection of the ticket it only actually runs for four weeks, not a month, even though the ticket has month printed on it.

So not only has First increased the fare from £20 to £30 - an increase of 50 per cent - but reduced a month to four weeks. So now instead of buying 12 tickets a year I have to buy 13 a year. So my bill has increased from £240 to £390 - an increase of 62.5 per cent. Double this for both my children and this is one big increase.

These tickets, by the way, are purely to get my children to and from school. They are a necessity because my children are unable to travel by other means.

I have read several letters regarding the fare hikes and assumed that a month would still be a month, but this seems to be stooping to new depths. So when you think a child's fare has gone up 50 per cent it's really 62.5 per cent. Happy New Year, First.

N Andrew,

Halifax Court,

Clifton,

York.

Updated: 11:09 Friday, January 13, 2006