IPSWICH: The town’s most famous pensioner seems to have given her backing to the campaign to keep free bus fares for pensioners.

Currently pensioners and disabled people are able to travel free of charge on buses in Suffolk whatever the time of day. However from April next year Suffolk County Council is planning to restrict free travel times to after 9.30am.

Now the town’s Labour Party has highlighted the issue by giving Grandma a bus pass, after she moved a few metres as part of the �650,000 creation of Giles Circus.

Labour says this same sum would pay for free pre-9.30am bus fares for every single pensioner in Ipswich for six years. Party transport spokesman Phil Smart said: “Local Tory councillors are not interested in providing a better deal for pensioners and seem quite happy to make cuts that fall on those least able to afford it.”

Conservative borough leader Liz Harsant said: “I think they’ve rather missed the point with this. The money we had for Giles Circus came from the Haven Gateway for a specific project and was not available for concessionary fares.”