Free transport for drug and alcohol abusers may end when travel passes are renewed in February.

The Freedom Pass enables people with disabilities to travel without charge on buses, trains and the London Underground. Each pass costs a council £150.

Ealing councillors are due to meet tonight (Jan 31) to decide whether to adopt Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) guidelines on concessionary fares for the disabled, which would exclude around 200 current pass-holders and also increase the number of people requiring assessment.

All passes expire on March 31 and the re-issue of the passes begins on February 4.

A council spokeswoman said: "Uniform guidelines have been needed to solve problems where people have been eligible for the Freedom Pass before moving into another borough where they are not eligible. The DTLR has suggested these criteria for use in all the boroughs but at the same time the guidelines leave us enough flexibility to use discretion for individual cases."

The Disability Living Allowance, which provides the travel pass, is split into two categories, Care and Mobility. Under the DTLR guidelines, only those who receive the highest rate mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance are eligible. The council spokeswoman said this may exclude 'people with mental health problems and abusers of drugs and alcohol'.

Teresa Weiler of the Chaucer Clinic for Alcoholics at St Bernard's Estate, Uxbridge Road, Southall, said: "This is simply a case of criteria for another service being squeezed to save money. When alcoholics book in with us for treatment, many of them have been drinking for over 20 years. Alcohol has destroyed so much of their nervous system that they can't walk. These people are as vulnerable as the disabled, the elderly and the mentally ill."