THE first sentence of Worcestershire County Council’s Transport Review 2013 reads to me as having been altered – with ‘deals’ replacing ‘does not deal’.

It should read: “... all public services are facing a severe reduction in funding as central government does not deal with the national debt.”

UK national debt is more than 500 per cent of GDP, six times greater than government debt. Its biggest component is financial institution debt – government debt is its smallest component.

The coalition, and it seems, the county council conflate national and Government debt.

Cutting Worcestershire’s buses harms the local economy by reducing bus company turnover, by making it harder for many to get to work and by making families pay more, as has already happened for school buses. All these people then have less to spend in the local economy.

Only a recovery in the real economy will enable reduction of national and government debt. Telling the truth about debt is surely the prerequisite to that recovery.

JOHN RYE Malvern