PENSIONER Donald Bell says he received just one cold weather payment last year.

The 78-year-old, received the £25 Government pay-out when temperatures were recorded to have dipped below zero degrees for seven consecutive days.

The Government is planning to use Met Office data from a weather station in Leek this winter for the Staffordshire Moorlands, rather than rely on information sent from an outpost in Shropshire, where the climate is generally milder.

However, for pensioners like Mr Bell, who lives in Bucknall, and others in Stoke-on-Trent, the Government will still calculate cold weather payments based on data recorded at Shawbury, which is more than 30 miles away.

He said: "I would think it is much fairer to use the weather station at Leek.

"I just got one cold weather payment last year and I was quite surprised to get that.

"Personally, I don't use a lot of gas and electricity, because I'm quite a cold person, I don't like being hot.

"I don't tend to have the radiator on if I can help it, I much prefer to have a fire. I've got a gas fire and an electric fire."