WHEN Alan Almond applied for a bus pass, he expected a bit of a wait. But almost nine months and two more applications later he has STILL not got one.

After his latest fruitless trip to his local bus station, 61-year-old Alan fears transport bosses have lost his personal information - including a copy of his birth certificate - and is demanding answers.

He said: "The whole process has been a sham. I've now applied three times and not to have it by now is ridiculous." Alan, from Wythenshawe, first applied for his pass, allowing over-60s free bus travel nationwide at non-peak times, just after he turned 60 in December.

He said: "I filled in an application form and sent it off with a copy of my birth certificate and a bill. I knew the pass would be very popular and I expected it would take a bit of time, so I waited patiently.

"But then in March I got fed up so I called Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority. They said the information had been lost but not to worry, because they were sure it had been destroyed.

"Since then, I've gone back and forth and filled in two more forms, but have had nothing back."

Alan, who is semi-retired, said things came to a head when he was asked to fill in a fourth application.

"I said, `You've got to be joking!', so they said if I came into Manchester they would do it there and then," he said.

"But I'm not doing that. How much would it cost me to park there? I'm a pensioner."

He is now waiting to hear back from GMPTE which, he says, has promised him his pass within a week. "I'm not holding my breath," he said. And he labelled the whole application process `a sham'.

"They reckon the personal information has been destroyed, but how do they know that if it was lost?" he said. "Anyone could have my details.

"They haven't a clue. Crooks could have my details and be filling out applications for passports and all sorts. The whole thing has been an utter joke."

Michael Renshaw, of GMPTE, apologised to Alan, but insisted no personal details had been lost.

"I am sorry his attempts to apply for a travel pass have been unsuccessful," he said.

"We have made arrangements to provide him with his pass as soon as possible and will look to establish why his previous attempts have been unsuccessful. We have now issued more than 400,000 new smart-card-style national travel passes and are still receiving 2,000 applications every week.

"We have a dedicated team taking care of this, but there is no backlog.

"A straightforward application should be processed in about three weeks - as long as the form is filled in correctly and we have the documents we need.

"If people have applied for a pass more than two months ago and not yet received it - and haven't heard from us - they should contact us as soon as possible on 0161-244 1050."

Mr Renshaw added that in a number of cases where applications had been separated from photocopies of identification documents, the copies were `securely destroyed'.