FURIOUS council leader, Dave Watts, has hit out at "rumours" that pensioners' bus passes are to be scrapped and says that the matter is definitely not under consideration.

His fierce denial follows a report by Liberal Democrat councillors Sue Derbyshire and Neil Taylor in 'Focus' newsletters issued by the local party who say they have heard the rumours via a "senior Labour source."

Councillor Watts retorted: "This is absolute rubbish. They fail to name the source and, in my opinion as Labour leader, they are just scaremongering.

"We know exactly how important bus passes are to our pensioners and would not even consider scrapping them."

Councillor Watts also pointed out that such a decision to scrap bus passes - Merseyside is the only area to provide free ones - would have to be taken by the five district councils which comprise Merseyside and would not be an individual decision in any case.

Councillor Sue Derbyshire defended the report in the newsletter, and said: "The party's concerns about the future of free bus passes were raised by comments made by the Labour chair of the Passenger Transport Executive (PTE). This is the body which would decide if free bus passes were to continue.

"Perhaps Councillor Watts should check with his Labour Party colleagues before he starts throwing accusations around. This is an important issue and the Liberal Democrats challenge Councillor Watts to guarantee that Labour on the PTE will not take away the free bus passes.

"Lib Dems believe this is a real threat and we are taking positive action."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.