BBC must cut licences instead of free TV licences for over-75s – Yorkshire Post letters

THE BBC’s call to stop free TV licences is totally disgraceful (The Yorkshire Post, June 11).

The number of free licences involved covers many couples, and also many care and nursing homes, so the total will not be as large as one might think.

When you add the cost of administering a means-tested system, it will not equate to 20 per cent of the BBC’s budget.

That budget is excessive when one looks at some salaries paid by so-called star presenters and the items such as the cost of the revamped EastEnders set.

Leaving aside the number of repeats and re-repeats, programme adverts and other waffle, the licence fee appears poor value. If we are all expected to contribute, the BBC should be more realistic in its finances.

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

IT was announced that 3.7m OAPS are to lose free TV licences on the day that Boris Johnson, a would-be PM, said he is in favour of tax cuts for the rich.

The Tories have cut back on the BBC’s budget and seek to blame the BBC for the cuts, but it is not just the TV licence they are going for, they are also looking at the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and the bus pass. None of this helps tackle loneliness and isolation.