Elderly and disabled people from Shrewsbury have hit out at council bosses after free travel passes failed to arrive on time.
Borough councillors have received complaints from residents entitled to concessionary travel as they have not been sent their new passes – even though they should have been able to start using them from Tuesday (April 1).
Councillors have branded the situation as ‘abysmal’ but borough council officials have not been able to say when the passes will be distributed.
The ‘smart card’ is part of a new national scheme which will allow pass holders to use local transport anywhere in England.
Monkmoor councillor, Tony Durnell, and Sutton and Reabrook councillors Liz Parsons and Jon Tandy, said they had all received calls from people worried because they had not got their new cards on Tuesday.
Councillor Durnell said: “I think it’s abysmal that people have not been sent their cards. This should have been better organised.”
Councillor Tandy said: “Fujitsu are supposed to get them out as they are printing them. I have been chasing this up for a week.”
Jon King, SABC spokesman, said: “We are getting the passes out as quickly as we can. People can carry on using their old passes.” He couldn’t say how many people had not received the passes nor when they would be delivered.
A spokesperson for Fujitsu, said: “Whilst we are not able to comment on specific cases we can confirm that we have issued over 2.5 million bus passes in 112 local districts and are continuing to produce new cards.”