Pensioners could be stopped from using half-fare bus passes outside Southend as part of drastic budget cuts.

Southend Council subsidises the passes allowing the elderly cheap fares to travel on buses throughout the county.

However, a town hall funding crisis means pensioners may only be allowed to use the passes as far as the borough boundary, and not places such as Rayleigh, Rochford or Hadleigh.

The move represents another hammer blow for bus travellers because the council is already planning to axe all its subsidies to bus routes in the town.

And that would mean that a dozen routes which are not economically viable - but which the council has propped up - would be axed.

It is the possible withdrawal of cash support for the half-fare bus pas scheme, however, which will be seen as the most contentious move.