Karen Hoy pointed out (August 22) several out-of-town bus routes are likely to be axed because they are not profitable for private companies to run and Brighton and Hove City Council is not willing to subsidise them.

This is something which has been happening all across the country since bus services began to be privatised and, as Karen pointed out, has made a mockery of Labour's feigned "encouragement" of public transport.

Privatisation was inevitably going to lead to lesser-used services being axed and increased fares on most of those remaining. This is exactly what has happened. Fares are up 83 per cent in Crawley.

Of course, the most vulnerable are the most seriously affected - those who can afford neither cars nor property close to town centres.

Once again, the Government is promoting policies which devastate people's access to public services and then complaining people do not use them.

The Government does exactly the same thing in education, pricing it out of the reach of ordinary people and then setting up focus groups to "encourage" working class people to go to university. If they want people to use these services, they must make them affordable.

-Dan Glazebrook, President, University of Sussex Students' Union