ELDERLY people in the Petersfield area are being kept prisoners in their homes by "disgustingly inadequate" concessionary public transport fares, it was claimed this week.

Now East Hampshire District Council is to re-examine the fare system, which gives nearly £440,000 every year to pensioners and disabled people throughout the district.

Peter Cooper, from the Ramscote sheltered home's residents' association, told members of East Hampshire District Council's central community committee this week that pensioners recently told him they felt "imprisoned" because they were only given £24 in concessionary fare tokens.

"Pensioners feel they cannot get about," he told the committee. "To get from the outskirts of the town to the centre and home again, it costs around £5, which means they only go for a day out five times a year.

"This is disgusting and very sad," he told councillors, adding that elderly people should be given unlimited free travel.

"This happens in London and in many places throughout the world. Why can't we do it here in East Hampshire?" Mr Cooper asked.

The problem facing elderly and disabled people, particularly in rural areas of East Hampshire, was highlighted by the East Meon Care Group.

Its chairman, Sue Croft, told the committee that the group's volunteer drivers carried out more than 200 journeys a year taking people to the doctor's surgery and to hospitals as far afield as Winchester and Southampton.

The group claimed that in larger communities members had heard of elderly people actually selling their tokens because they were of little use as they had the facilities of doctors, dentists and hospitals in the area.

But in rural areas the £24 tokens were soon swallowed up.

The group said it wanted travel tokens to be reduced for larger communities and increased for people in rural villages who needed to make urgent trips for medical attention, not simply for a day out.

Teresa Jamieson told the meeting she was well aware of the problems of getting people to hospital and the lack of hospital transport.

"Without voluntary drivers, a lot of people would not get to appointments and their work goes unsung, especially in the villages."

But she said she could not support residents in larger communities receiving less in fares. "I would rather say that people in rural areas need to have more."

She believed the fares should be means-tested so the money went to the right people.

Elsa Bulmer, chairman of Petersfield Age Concern, agreed that it was important for the right people to get the fares but she urged caution over means-testing, which could be "horrendous", she warned councillors.

Sue Halstead said there were people over 60 "swanning around the world and using taxis to get to the airport".

She stressed: "The concessionary fares must be targeted at those who need them. This is a nettle that must be grasped. It will have to be done sensitively, but it must be done."

EHDC's leader Elizabeth Cartwright added: "We are spending all this money but not enough is going to the right people at the moment."

The committee agreed to ask the transport and traffic panel to review the concessionary fares policy.