A retired Bradford building inspector has been hailed a hero after helping to win free driving licences for the over-70s.

Bernard Brennan wrote hundreds of letters in a three-and-a-half-year campaign on behalf of fellow pensioners.

Now the Government has announced that from March next year licences will be free for drivers aged 70 and over.

Pensioners previously had to pay £8.50 for a three-year licence or £6 for a two-year licence.

Mr Brennan, 73, of Oakwood Grove, Toller Lane, wrote to the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority, MPs, the Parliam-entary Ombudsman, the Office of Fair Trading and even Tony Blair.

He said: "It just seemed to me pensioners shouldn't have to pay for a driving licence. I wrote to Tony Blair six months ago and said we shouldn't have to pay because it was discrimination against the elderly. I pointed out that between four and six million pensioners were drivers."

Bob Smith, Fagley branch chairman of the Retired Persons' Action Group, said: "He has done a marvellous job. He ought to get an honour."

Mr Brennan is already planning his next campaign.

He said: "Pensioners in Northern Ireland don't have to pay on the buses and in Scotland they travel free on the buses and trains, but in England we have to pay. That's discrimination too and I'll be trying to change that next."