FURIOUS parents in Redditch have blasted Diamond Buses for removing the monthly child ticket for children, with many saying they are shocked and disgusted.

Diamond Buses removed the monthly child ticket for children in Redditch, saying it made the controversial decision due to "very high fraudulent use".

Commenting online the bus operator said the decision was not taken lightly.

However, indignant parents have called the move an "abomination" and one that is completely unfair, considering the service it provides is "substandard at best".

Dan Holland said: "It’s going to cost even more for struggling families to send their kids on the buses.

"The issue here is they are claiming there is fraudulent use of monthly passes so they are suspending their sale. This I understand but they are not reducing the cost of weekly passes to compensate.

"Why can’t they bring back photo bus passes that would solve the issue straight away."

He added: "We lose an average of £50 per month in lost earnings due to the service and £150 per quarter due to lost time keeping bonus. I have have had to change my working hours simply so I can get my wife into work so she stops loosing money, the downside to this... I now lose six hours per week in overtime approx £96 per week.

"Now that Diamond are cutting my child’s monthly pass it is going to cost us nearly £50 extra per month on her fare."

Another parent said it increases the cost to parents whose children rely on the buses by more than £20 per month.

A spokesman from Diamond said: "We have spent a lot of time reviewing this and we are continuing to do so - including the involvement of local schools and the police to try to curtail the issue.

"When we are happy we have the solution we will consider re-introducing the tickets."

They added: "Weekly and daily tickets are unaffected and still available for purchase via the normal platforms."

The bus operator recently announced a series of changes to its fares in the Worcestershire, West Midlands and Tamworth areas, which includes price rises for most tickets outside of the Diamond Network Zone.

The changes include a number of local price increases.

For a full breakdown of the fare changes, visit diamondbuses.com.