HUNDREDS of parents could face huge hikes as Essex County Council considers axing free transport to all but their nearest schools.
David Kendall, county councillor for Brentwood South, said some parents could be stung by an extra £60 a month if the proposal to only offer free transport to the closest school to the child's home address is approved.
If a child went to a school further away, the entire bus journey would cost as much as an extra £3 a day, he added.
Some of the hardest-hit areas will be Doddinghurst, Kelvedon Hatch, Stondon Massey, Blackmore and Hook End, where the council currently transports 1,135 pupils to schools in Brentwood and Epping, costing the authority £1.1 million – 12 per cent of the council's overall forecast spend on home-to-school transport for eligible secondary students.
For many of those children, the nearest school may be Becket Keys, Shenfield or Anglo European in Ingatestone. Parents of students at St Martins and Brentwood County High who live in these areas would be charged extra.
Cllr Kendall said: "I am very concerned about this transport consultation because it could mean some Brentwood parents having to pay out a considerable amount of money each year to send their child to the school of their choice, whereas in the past it has been free.
"I would urge all parents who might be affected – particularly those in the rural parts of Brentwood – to study the consultation information carefully and to make their views known.
"I believe the current home-to-school transport arrangements are fair and I am opposed to Tory-controlled Essex County Council making any changes."
Essex County Council says it currently spends more than £25 million on school transport – a figure it says is unsustainable.
It has therefore launched a six-week formal public consultation into the discretionary elements of its home-to-school transport policy.
This could alter the reference to catchment area within the assessment of entitlement to home-to-school transport, scrap joint catchment areas and instead only provide transport to the nearest school to the home address where statutory walking distances are met.
It could also mean removing existing transport from routes which are now deemed safe to walk, withdrawing the provision of transport to families on a low income whose children attend a selective grammar school, and introducing a means-tested assessment for transport provided to pupils in exceptional circumstances.
It could also mean introducing a new window for home-to- school transport applications and reviewing existing post-16 transport provision.
Essex County Councillor Ray Gooding, cabinet member for education and lifelong learning said: "Quite simply, we need to save money right across the board and this means a review of the discretionary elements of our home-to-school transport policy.
"We do not have the level of funding to continue providing the same levels of service that we have provided to students in the past. The existing discretionary transport policy is incredibly generous, but it is complicated, unfair and outdated.
"We need to review our policy to ensure it is simple, fair, consistent and transparent, and that in the long term the local authority can provide for those who need our support the most."
