Nick Harvey says: ‘New regulations for school transport from this September are likely to penalise parents’ choice of schools in rural areas such as North Devon.

‘If a school is outside a catchment area parents have to first secure a place for their child and then appeal to the County Council for help with transport costs. This puts lower income families in rural areas in an impossible position.

‘It is all very well the Government saying that parents can select a school of preference, if they are not going to make adequate transport provision in rural areas. The Government has created a level of expectation that Local Authorities cannot deliver on.’

When challenged on this issue Andrew Adonis, Parliamentary Under secretary of State for Schools and Learners recently told Nick Harvey:

‘The Courts have held that Local Authorities do not have a duty to provide free transport for pupils whose parents have chosen to send them to a school other than the nearest suitable one, even if it is beyond statutory walking distance.’

Nick Harvey responds: ‘For parents in urban areas the new transport criteria are not such a problem, but for low income families in rural areas where schools are widely dispersed it affectively excludes them.’