A DOZEN charities today demanded the Scottish Government extend free bus passes to cover special transport schemes used by the elderly and disabled.

The charities, which represent senior citizens and the disabled, claimed thousands of people who have a free bus pass are missing out because they cannot use regular scheduled services.

Instead they use demand-responsive community transport schemes - such as Dial-a-Bus or Ring'n'Ride - where the elderly and disabled can book a place on a bus which will pick them up and take them to their destination.

The charities - including Help the Aged in Scotland, Capability Scotland and Age Concern Scotland - say 2.6 million trips a year are made using these services.

But they said such trips were not covered by the national concessionary bus travel scheme.

The charities have now launched A Fare Deal campaign in a bid to persuade the Scottish Government to extend entitlement.

Gail Brown, campaigns officer at Help the Aged in Scotland, said: "We want to see everyone who is entitled to use the free travel scheme able to benefit from it.

"Thousands of older and disabled people have to restrict their journeys to essential trips and miss out on social, cultural and in some cases economic activities, to their and society's detriment, just because demand responsive community transport is not included.

"It's high time they got A Fare Deal."

And Faye Gatenby, Capability Scotland's campaigns, parliamentary and policy manager, said: "Disabled people must not be excluded from the healthier, wealthier and fairer Scotland that the Government is working towards, nor should disabled people be excluded from the benefits that free bus travel can bring simply because the buses are not accessible to them.

"There is a lot that needs to be done to make our transport accessible for disabled people - extending the national concessionary bus travel scheme to include demand responsive community transport is a small, relatively inexpensive yet important step that the Government can make."