MORE than 25 pensioners will travel up to London today to join a "grey power" protest outside Westminster.

Led by Southampton Pensioners' Forum leader Don Harper, the band of over 60s plan to lobby the South's MPs and hand over the newly-drawn up Pensioners' Manifesto.

"We will be protesting outside the Houses of Parliament with banners," said Don. "We won't be stopping the traffic but we will be holding things up because it takes us a while to cross the road.

"We chose the first week in September to go up because it's the first Prime Minister's question time since they returned after summer and there should be plenty of people about."

The group, which includes campaigners from the New Forest, Eastleigh and Southampton, will travel by coach this morning and, together with pensioners from across the country, will present their manifesto.

The document, drawn up this summer following a massive consultation by the National Pensioners' Convention, is designed to shake-up the key political parties - and make them take note of the so-called grey vote at the next general election.

It calls for better pensions, regular health checks, free public transport, fairer council tax rates and low-cost TV licences.

Their demands include:

Raising the basic state pension to £105.45 a week for a single pensioner and £160.95 for a couple from April.

Removing means testing from pensions and benefits.

State pension to be linked to average earnings or inflation, whichever is greater, so pensioners share in national prosperity.

A £200 increase per pensioner household in the winter fuel allowance, with £100 extra for over-80s.

It also lists how the government can raise the funds to make the changes - and points towards existing money pots such as the National Insurance Fund.

Mr Harper said: "We all feel passionately about this. I have been campaigning for about seven or eight years on these issues and the Southampton forum has been going for about 12.

"We've seen some changes but more can still be done."

Diane Andrews, secretary of the Eastleigh and Southern parishes Older People's Forum, said: "It's the opportunity to go and tell MPs that we need special provision.

"The thing we are particularly concerned about here is transport. We live outside Southampton in a semi-rural area and the problems we have largely stem from lack of transport."