Who will pay out for free travel passes?

The service to Leeds may prove popular, using the M1 and calling at Barnsley.

A service to Manchester perhaps not so.

It is hated by motorists using the Snake or Woodhead and the M62 is the only alternative which is by no means a direct route.

The key to the request lies at the end of the letter, where J Bull asks for no time limit restriction on pensioners’ passes – that is we want to travel free whereas we have to pay to travel by rail.

Who does the writer expect to pay for these services, which were withdrawn because they were loss making?

I am also sure that Clive Betts MP would not support a move that would enable pensioners to spend their money in Manchester and Leeds, rather than in South Yorkshire.

I am not convinced, also, that any such bus services would see residents from Manchester and Leeds flocking to Sheffield, particularly given the current state of shopping provision in the city centre.

JP Sanderson

by email

n Sheffield should not be so far behind Leeds as it appears to be. After all Labour have held sway in both cities for large periods of time and yet Leeds council appear to have realised something that the trainee MPs in our town hall have not and that is that Labour will not always be in power in Westminster.

Just waiting for a Labour government in the hope that they will pour money into this city in thanks for the council’s ridiculous support is a false hope.

The sad fact is there is no difference between our elected representatives whatever the party.

They use hand outs from central government to gain support knowing that they can be easily taken away resulting in civil service jobs being moved north when a Labour government is in office and moved back south when the government changes.

What Leeds seem to have realised is that they cannot rely on Westminster hand-outs and instead have created a thriving retail economy which has created thousands of jobs and hundreds of retail outlets paying business rates.

We want secure jobs for our children and grandchildren.

Our representatives are elected to do our bidding not the other way around.

P Robb

S20