The West Midlands Ring and Ride service is to charge passengers for the first time since its introduction in 1983. This move follows consultation with users of the service, which provides help for those unable to use regular public transport, and its providers, the West Midlands Special Needs Transport charity.

Members of the integrated transport authority Centro, which funds Ring and Ride on behalf of the region’s seven district councils, have endorsed a recommendation that a 60p single trip fare be brought in for registered users for 2011/12 in order to deal with a budget shortfall of £900,000. Over 90% of service users who voted on the scheme were in favour of paying for the service, with the majority of these opting for a charge per ride rather than an annual membership fee.

The move will be on a 12 month basis and Centro have pledged there will be a review after six months to see how the service was running and whether the charge was effectively tackling the deficit.

Centro chair Cllr Douglas Adams stated, “In an ideal world we would not have to do this but the budget has been reduced and if we are to maintain services as users would want then we have had to introduce this charge. The overwhelming majority of users said they were happy to make a small payment and we have acted on that.”