ANGRY parents have slammed a council over its proposal to axe school transport.

Bourne End mum Anita Lee-Rubis wrote to Buckinghamshire County Council to express dismay at the authority’s proposal to only provide free school transport to a pupil’s closest school as part of a cost-saving exercise.

Her son is in year seven at John Hampden Grammar School in High Wycombe after he picked it over Marlow’s Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School.

The family’s Goddington Road home sits in the catchment area for both schools but, under the plans, their free transport would be pulled because Borlase’s is closer to their home.

A council-run consultation over the plans closes on April 9.

Mrs Lee-Rubis said: “Had I known that free transport was going to be withdrawn I would not have chosen for my son to attend John Hampden.

“Withdrawing the provision for existing pupils is unfair and, in my case, simply unaffordable.

“If the council is to withdraw free transport for my son on the basis John Hampden is not his closest catchment, will they offer him a place at Borlase’s?”

Another Bourne End mother to criticise the proposals is Miriam Blazey. Her 12-year-old daughter elected to join Borlase’s over Beaconsfield High School.

She urged the council to re-jig the rules to allow families in the middle of catchment areas to be allowed to pick the school of their choice without being penalised.

She said: “The proposal should be that the home to school transport is provided to the school that you have chosen in your catchment area if it is over the statutory walking distance.

“Obviously, if I chose a school out of my catchment area then it is up to me to get my child to school and I always understood that.

“But families and children shouldn’t be penalised. It wouldn’t be fair on my daughter, after spending hours visiting schools during what is a difficult time for some children, to pull her out and send her to a school she doesn’t want to go to.

Steven Adams, cabinet member for education, said the council understood parents’ concerns but the plan would help save the authority £2.5m a year.

He said: “School transport suppliers are contracted as a result of a tendering process. There is no profit in the cost of a school transport place - it only covers the fare cost. Parents are free to make whatever transport arrangements they wish.”