SIR - Two stories have caught my eye recently.

The first was the proposal by our oh so prudent council to save £30,000 by ending free school travel for disabled children. The second was about the money spent by all UK councils refreshing their overworked, highly stressed employees with bottled water.

Regrettably, I am not certain how much is spent by either our city or county councils on bottled water but I feel sure if they look hard enough and use their imagination they can find some way of trading something that is wasteful and unnecessary to keep something that is actually helpful for a group of people who are significantly less adavantaged. The obscene amounts of money spent on useless mail shots on high quality, glossy paper giving us information that no one has asked for or wants comes leaping to mind for some reason.

Still, it keeps the printers and copy writers in work so it's not completely pointless is it?

Given the choice, I'd still rather have the free bus service.

T S PALMER, Worcester.