AN army of senior citizens brought Bury town centre to a standstill on Saturday as they commandeered a zebra crossing during a pensions protest.

More than 30 OAPs and their supporters marched back and forth over the busy Kay Gardens crossing for more than an hour leaving the Saturday afternoon traffic gridlocked.

The protest, organised by the Bury Pensioners' Association, was sparked by a rise in the state pension earlier in the year of a mere 75p.

Vice chairman of the Bury Pensioners' Association, Philip Kaiserman, 78, said they were calling on the Government to take action to raise pensions adding that Britain's Senior Citizens were the lowest paid in Europe.

The Bury protest formed part of a national day of action which is a calling for an increase in the pension in November of at least £9.

The group are also calling for pensions to be balanced against the average national earnings - which would see it rise by another £30.

Mr Kaiserman described the protest as a great success.

"We started off at one side of the crossing and walked across it in an orderly fashion," he said. "When we reached the other side we let a few cars go through and then returned.

"There was quite a queue of traffic, there must have been hundreds of cars, but the motorists were not disgruntled, in fact they were right behind us."

He added: "They were sounding their horns in support and almost everyone took one of our leaflets it was all very good natured and we didn't see one police officer."

Pensioners are currently petitioning the Queen for help in getting their money increased. Mr Kaiserman said they were hoping to collect a million signatures across the country.

"We are calling on the Government to act and to act fast," he said. "We are lagging behind every other country in Europe yet we are the seventh richest country in the world."

Mr Kaiserman says the campaign won't end with Saturday's protest.

"We will be discussing the protest at our next meeting and planning the way forward," he said. "There will be other events but we cannot say what they will be at this stage."

The protest organiser, Mr Jim Homewood, aged 77, said: "We've been too polite for too long, we need to shake this government up."

Mr Homewood was unhappy with Labour's minimum income guarantee, which uses income support to top up the money paid to the poorest pensioners.

"It is turning a universal state pension into a means tested handout.

"We don't want handouts, we want a pension as a right so that all the

pensioners can have dignity," he said. Out in force: Bury Pensioners' Association stage their protest on the Kay Gardens pelican crossing