Hundreds face huge rise in bus fares to school as subsidies cut

HUNDREDS of parents will be forced to pay more for their children to go to school after North Yorkshire County Council announced plans to slash subsidies and increase fares as part of a bid to claw back £69m in savings over the next four years.

The county council has revealed it is increasing the price of its bus pass from £275 a year to a single charge of £350 by 2013 for pupils.

The changes will affect hundreds of families whose children live within three miles of school but still take the bus.

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It has also emerged that the executive is slashing bus subsidies for new pupils who are transported to schools outside their catchment area to access a faith-based education.

Richard Owens, North Yorkshire County Council assistant director of integrated passenger transport, told the Yorkshire Post it was one of just a handful of local authorities nationwide who had gone ahead with the move, although many were considering it.

As part of the review, the county council also considered forcing disabled 16 to 19-year-olds to pay hundreds of pounds for their transport to schools and colleges to help slash its children and young people’s services budget by more than £23m over the next five years – but this was withdrawn after provoking a furious response.

Coun John Watson, executive member for schools, said: “It gives us no pleasure at all to take these steps but the financial position of the council is such that the discretionary items in the home to school and college transport policy have had to be substantially given up.

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“We have tried to limit the impact on less well off families.

“The policy changes will not come into effect until September 2012 which means parents will know about the charges when they choose schools.”

The county council provides free school transport to 18,000 pupils.