Elderly or disabled passengers using the Slinky Bus community transport service in West Somerset will no longer get free travel following a decision by Somerset County Council.

The service provides transport for people who don’t have their own means of travel or can’t use conventional public transport and is currently free for those holding free bus passes under the national concessionary scheme.

But from Monday (February 4), pass holders will have to pay to travel to health appointments or visit their relatives.

The county council’s cabinet voted in September to cut the level of subsidy given to Slinky Bus passengers across the county, claiming it could save £40,000 by April 2020.

And it has now published details of the new charges which will be brought in as a result, with concessionary bus pass holders now having to pay half the normal fare.

For them, a single journey will cost £1.30 for up to three miles and £1.80 for further afield with return fares of £2 and £2.50.

The council claimed that 83 per cent of registered Slinky users who responded to a consultation in October and November were in favour of the increase.