A flagship policy which guarantees free bus travel for the elderly and disabled in Scotland has been labelled "a shambles".

Under the scheme local councils will be compelled to meet a national minimum standard which guarantees free travel outwith peak travel times.

The Scottish Executive is spending �70m over the next 18 months to ensure that each council meets the standard.

But the Scottish National Party (SNP) has accused ministers of failing pensioners by not introducing a national travel scheme which allows free travel anywhere in the country.

Kenny MacAskill: "A shambles"

Across the country local authorities are beginning to publicise their free bus travel plans which will come into force on 30 September.

At its basic level pensioners and disabled people will get free local journeys outside the morning peak time.

But the national standard allows for wide differences as some councils can choose to meet it while others can decide to exceed it.

In Strathclyde, concessionary travellers will be able to go from as far as Ayr to Oban.

But in other local authority areas it will not be so easy to cross local authority boundaries.

Local schemes

The bus industry and charity Help the Aged are calling for one national scheme similar to that in Wales, where pensioners have unlimited free travel throughout the country.

The SNP's Kenny MacAskill said that ministers had failed to deliver on promises made to pensioners.

Speaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he said: " What was made clear by the executive was that they were talking about a national scheme here.

Lewis Macdonald: "Supporting local schemes"

"This is most certainly not a national scheme. The Welsh Assembly has brought in a scheme whereby pensioners can go from Anglesey to Swansea."

He said the Scottish scheme was "fragmented" and "a shambles" and should be redrawn to allow free national travel.

But Deputy Transport Minister Lewis Macdonald said there was never any intention to finance a national scheme and councils should be allowed to decide what services to offer in their areas.

He said: "What they've done in Wales is to link up the 22 local schemes and make them mutually exchangeable.

"We have always said that what we are doing is supporting local schemes and where local authorities want to take forward a joint scheme then we support that.

"We don't think it's appropriate to take away from local authorities the right to set schemes and the right to establish what the needs are for their local areas."