Bus charge plan 'cheating the children' (From Gazette & Herald)

Bus charge plan 'cheating the children'

PROPOSALS to charge teenagers to travel to their lessons are a means of "making money out of kids' education", a county councillor has claimed.

Currently, post-GCSE students get their bus fare paid by North Yorkshire County Council if they go to their nearest college.

But as part of its budget plans, the county council is now proposing to charge all students aged 16 and over - and possibly raise £1 million for the council's funds.

A council spokesman said its ruling executive was considering this as one of its options "because of the exceptionally difficult budget it now faces", adding that 95 per cent of local education authorities now made a charge.

But Liberal Democrat councillor David Lloyd-Williams said: "We are talking about making money out of kids' education."

Coun Lloyd-Williams, of Norton, said: "It is just another impediment to the progress of education."

About 5,000 students are likely to affected by the change across the county, should it come into effect. Many students in villages and areas such as Ryedale cannot walk or cycle to college because their nearest post-GCSE centre is too far away. Students in York already pay, but can get a free bus pass if they live more than three miles from their place of study and their parents earn less than £13,910 a year.

The county council's executive member for education, Coun John Watson, said: "We know that introducing charges for this service will be unpopular, but we are faced with having to make some very difficult decisions."

The county council has announced a public consultation over the proposals, saying that charging students £5 a week would raise £500,000 for the council, and £10 a week would bring in £1 million a year. It said North Yorkshire currently spent the most of any authority on transport for post-16 students £34 per student per week.

Updated: 11:08 Wednesday, January 04, 2006