DURHAM County Council has announced that it is planning to cancel some bus services which require a subsidy (Echo, Jan 10).

This will affect anyone living in an outlying village who wants to travel in the evening or on Sundays. Hospital visiting will be almost impossible for some people.

Why didn’t the County Council take a different approach and charge bus users more fairly for travel?

Why does an eight-year-old child have to pay half fare, a 16- year-old still at school have to pay full fare, but a 60-year-old in full time employment pay absolutely nothing for a bus journey?

Would it not be a better idea for those over 60 to pay a contribution towards travel, maybe a 50p flat fare?

Does the County Council know how many free journeys it provides each year? Is it too simplistic an idea to just divide the shortfall in bus revenue by the number of free journeys to find a flat fare that would recover enough money from bus users to pay for the service they use?

In a time where we are discouraging car use and encouraging people to use public transport, the scrapping of services and bus routes in a largely rural county seems ludicrous.

John Watson, Durham.