Frustrated bosses at Kent County Council have slammed Sadiq Khan’s proposals to scrap day travelcards to London.

Last month, Transport for London (TfL) said it was discussing the idea of scrapping the popular saver tickets.

The plans haven’t gone down well, with some suggesting it would be worse than the Ulez expansion for people in Kent.

If given the go ahead, it would see the end of people from outside the capital getting discounted travel to, from and around London.

In its place, travellers would need to buy a separate rail ticket and then utilise the pay-as-you-go travel around the city.

Kent County Council, alongside Surrey County Council, has written to TfL to slam the idea.

Both councils, as well as Buckinghamshire Council, criticised the transport company’s consultation process, claiming the body failed to directly contact them about the changes.

David Brazier, KCC’s transport lead, said the authority only became aware when a neighbouring council alerted them.

The changes were unveiled earlier this year in an attempt to plug a £740m funding black hole at the organisation.

It comes after Sadiq Khan scrapped free morning peak travel for pensioners to save £40m per year.

Many politicians have joined the debate, including Tory MP for Runnymede and Weybridge Ben Spencer, who thinks the changes would have a bigger impact on constituents than the Ulez charge.

He said: “I would argue the travelcard issue is potentially even worse for my constituents, because we’ve got so many people who go into London, on the train, whether that is daily, or a couple of times a week to go into work.

He has launched a petition against the plans and believed the plans go against Mr Khan’s aims of improving the environment.

Neil Middleton, director of the rail passengers campaign group Railfuture, added: “The scrapping of the day card would turn a nice simple product that everyone understands and offers great value, into something endlessly complicated and uncertain that most people don’t, most people don’t understand.

“The big point is the mayor is setting out to discourage people from coming to London, which is a bad outcome.”

A TfL spokesman said: “Due to requirements of the Government’s funding settlements, we are having to consider proposals to withdraw from elements of the Travelcard Agreement, such as TfL’s acceptance of day travelcards. The existing daily pay as you go caps on contactless or oyster, which are used by the overwhelming majority of those travelling, would not be affected by these proposals.

“We are now in the process of reviewing the feedback from key stakeholders to help inform our equality impact assessment, which will form part of the mayor’s consideration of this proposal.

“The decision on whether to withdraw day travelcards is a mayoral decision. No decision has yet been made and there is not a set date for the final decision.”