RURAL Affairs Minister Alun Michael was in for an ear bashing on Wednesday from Pewsey great grandmother Maureen Kearney.

Mrs Kearney, 73, who has five great grandchildren, is a local champion of pensioners' rights.

She travelled to Westminster with Community First, Wiltshire, to tell Mr Michael of some of the difficulties pensioners face in rural areas.

Dozens of pensioners from all parts of the country were invited to the House of Commons to give their views on how life could be improved. Mrs Kearney, who has lived in Pewsey since 1952, was chosen by Community First, Wiltshire, as an able spokeswoman on behalf of the county's pensioners.

She is a seasoned member of the Swindon and Wiltshire Users Network and was a member of the former group, Pewsey Old People Speak.

Yesterday she was due to air her views to the Rural Affairs Minister and other MPs on the all party Parliamentary group on poverty, whose members are looking for effective ways to get help to those most in need.

Mrs Kearney was reluctant to speak of her personal role in the Whitehall talks and told the Gazette she would have preferred to have her name left out.

She said she always campaigned on behalf of disadvantaged rural pensioners and never for herself.

Mrs Kearney, who lives in Aston House, said: "All I have ever asked for is a better deal all round and for the Government and the ministers to pay more attention to our real needs."

She said one of the problems pensioners from rural areas faced was getting over to the MPs and Government ministers the dire financial straits many of them are in.

She said: "The problem is that many of them do not have the foggiest idea of how we live.

"Many of them do not have any idea of how pensioners have to budget, how many of us still have little tins in which to put our money for our outgoings.

"We cannot borrow or live on credit cards like many young people do. We have to make do with our pensions."

Community First, Wiltshire, has had to submit a list of the questions its members want to ask but Mrs Kearney said she did not need a list herself.

She said: "I will be there speaking for the local community as a whole not for myself. I will probably get only a couple of minutes but I plan to use that time to let the Minister know just how difficult things are for some pensioners in the rural communities like Pewsey."

A Community First, Wiltshire, spokesman said yesterday's meeting offered a unique opportunity for ordinary citizens to demonstrate how Government policies are working or not.