'Rich only' fearof faith schools

David Todd said the county council's decision to continue to impose charges for transport to schools such as St Philip Howard Catholic High School will deprive some parents of the chance to send their children there.

The council's member in charge of children and young people's services, Cllr Mark Dunn, has announced he has modified his original proposal for charging to take pupils to the schools.

Those in larger families will gain some relief instead of all new children being subject to the termly charges from September 2008.

Where more than two children from one family travel and meet the eligibility criteria, the third eligible child will pay half of the charge. Any subsequent children will be able to travel free.

But Mr Todd, St Philip Howard's head, said the latest decision would do little to help those families which would be worst hit by the start of the charge.

'The decision will ease the financial burden on families with more than two children, but it does little to address the impact on lower income families,' he said.

'The county council's charging policy will alter the socio-economic profile of church schools, whereby only those who can afford the transport will choose the school.

'For those families who might be denied access to a Catholic education and for those community schools likely to be affected, we hope that the county council will take heed of our concern and that greater wisdom will prevail.'

Mr Todd said the protests recognised many other aspects of the original decision, announced by Cllr Dunn in May, needed to be addressed.

These included a more robust analysis of the likely impact of the proposals, including the effect on school places, the number of low income families who will be affected and the environmental damage incurred through extra car usage.

'It is unclear whether or not these requests will be ignored in an attempt to railroad the decision through, or whether there will be an intelligent, informed and reasoned way forward,' stated Mr Todd.

A report to the county council's cabinet, of which Cllr Dunn is a member, said evidence gathered from other authorities showed the introduction of charging schemes had little, if any, effect on levels of parental car usage for home to school transport.

Investigations into a similar charge in Essex showed applications for church schools were still high. In Hertfordshire, there seemed to be no reduction in pupils from poorer families.

Cllr Dunn said the protestors had made a valid point about the potential impact on large families of the transport fee.

'I was happy to look at this point again and feel the revision in the policy addresses the concerns raised,' he stated.

'It is important to emphasise that we are not withdrawing services, but are having to introduce these charges to meet the ever-increasing costs of transport.'

A charge of 60 a term will be levied for new primary pupils of church-aided schools, and 90 for secondary pupils from next September. Existing pupils will continue to travel for free.