IT will cost council taxpayers '50p a week at the most' to allow Redditch to keep its free bus pass scheme for pensioners and the disabled, says Labour's former council leader.

Councillor David Cartwright's claim comes just days before a public meeting to debate the controversial proposal to scrap the concessionary fare scheme after 20 years.

Mr Cartwright said the Labour group wanted to see the scheme continue and would oppose the current plan.

The proposal, which would see the introduction of a flat fee of 40p with the council footing the rest of the journey charge, caused uproar when it was announced in August.

Mr Cartwright said: "First of all, we want to see if there is any support on the council for the continuation of a free scheme.

"If there does not appear to be any agreement or any alternative scheme, then we will look to find some other way of getting an agreement which everyone will sign up to."

He added: "We are now looking at the cost of a scheme - as to how much it would cost the council taxpayer. We don't think the cost will be a great deal, it will be 50p a week at the most."

Mr Cartwright said the flat fee proposal would be "disastrous" and difficult to manage because many passengers made several journeys to reach their destinations and did not stay within Redditch

"We want to see a free scheme but if that does not happen, we want to delay any decision until further talks have taken place.

"We will not vote for anything which is not a free scheme," said Mr Cartwright.

The crunch meeting will take place at the town hall on Monday.