Yet again, Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company is cutting services in the area. Yet I begin to wonder if the word "service" remains within the vocabulary of what appears now to be merely a profit-making organisation and which, together with Brighton and Hove City Council, pays little heed to the needs of the community.

Surely if the council had any initiative, it could stop the reduction of these services? Several times in the past year, changes have been made to what is currently called the No 80a route, which provides transport to residents in Bear Road, Brighton.

This service is to be terminated, preference being given to the No 80, serving Coombe Road. Numbers on the Bear Road route have been regularly changed in the past year, including the post-6pm service, and the regularity of the service reduced.

Have the bus company and the council considered that there are many elderly people living on Bear Road? Have they considered such people toiling up this steep hill laden with their shopping? I guess not, since the handout informing us of the changes bears the phrase: "Due to poor patronage... Bear Road will no longer be served."

I wonder if any of the accountants who made this decision at head office have tried travelling on the tiny, tinny No 80a in mid-afternoon, when it is full of young mothers with children and pushchairs in tow?

I thought patronage was supposed to have been eliminated a few centuries ago - about the time we serfs cast off our noble lords. Strange... I also thought we paid the bus company to provide us with a service.

Dr Bill Haywood, Bear Road, Brighton

-* Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, replies: Our company only survives if we can successfully encourage more passengers to travel and to this end we are continuing to increase services in many areas and investing in new buses. The number of people using the Bear Road bus has declined over the years so it is now uneconomic to run without public funding. No extra council funding is available, although the council tried to secure an alternative by extending a service run by another bus company in the area. However, this has not proved possible.