WHAT a pity our MP, Rishi Sunak, is not prepared to do what Baroness McIntosh of Pickering has done and speak up in Parliament for improvements to our local bus services (D&S Times, Dec 2).

One of her suggestions that concessionary pass users contribute to the bus fare echoes what I said to Mr Sunak at a recent surgery in Leyburn.

I suggested that if the Conservative MPs with rural constituencies worked together they could endeavour to bring about the necessary changes as they all face the same problems.

When David Cameron’s manifesto said all concessionary passes should be free, he didn’t think that suggestion through to the logical consequences so, as Baroness McIntosh says, eventually it will lead to no bus services. Such a nonsensical promise deserves to be stood on its head and revoked.

Where there’s a will there’s often a way – but with no will nothing will change and the downward spiral will continue until rural buses are a thing of the past.

Sheila Simms, Leyburn