A DECISION to charge pensioners an extra £10 a year to cross the Warwickshire border on public buses has been labelled 'diabolical' by Alcester's mayor.

Originally, pensioners had not been able to travel over the border on their county council-supplemented travel passes.

Stratford MP John Maples and councillors managed to secure this addition but only at a £10 charge.

Elderly people in the centre of Warwickshire can travel tens of miles for half price with their normal passes but people living in Alcester cannot travel to a town such as Redditch, although it is only a few miles away, because it is in Worcestershire.

But Mr Maples believes the latest council decision is a positive thing, claiming it would give elderly people more freedom.