Customers travelling by bus throughout Basingstoke and Andover will have to have exact change from now on if they plan on paying by cash.

Stagecoach South announced that from today (May 22), all services will require the exact payment as a safety precaution for its drivers.

"At this difficult time our priority is to protect the safety of our customers and our own employees," a message from the company read.

"We’ve been listening carefully to the views of our employees and customers on what extra steps we can take to help them feel safe.

"Although the majority of customers are now using contactless and other digital forms of payment, many key workers still rely on cash to pay for their journey, so we are continuing to accept cash on our buses."

It added that that while there has been a reduction in cash handling as a result of asking customers to use contactless, the company are looking at opportunities to further minimise cash use.

This means that drivers in Basingstoke will be unable to give change for the foreseeable future.

Exact fares had already been rolled out for Stagecoach across the country, with the South section of the company being the last one to make the switch.