Transport charges rethink urged for faith school pupils

Cllr Dr James Walsh has asked for the decision to charge the parents of pupils at schools such as St Philip Howard Catholic High School and Bishop Luffa School 270 a year for the fares to be re-considered.

Children who attend faith primary schools will be charged 180 annually.

Cllr Dr Walsh has requested the county council's children's and young peoples' select committee to call in the decision by Cllr Mark Dunn, in charge of children's and young peoples' services, review it and force a change of heart.

The committee will meet on June 6.

Failure to reverse the charges from September 2008 would lead to permanent damage to the faith school community in the county, warned Cllr Dr Walsh, who represents Littlehampton East for the Liberal Democrats.

He said: 'This is a disgraceful decision for several reasons. The public consultation was overwhelmingly opposed to it and is directly contrary to government advice that councils should not disturb free transport arrangements put in place when schools were built near railway or bus stations.'

This was the situation with St Philip Howard in Barnham and Chatsmore High School at Worthing.

He warned that turning children away from public transport would also cause more congestion on the roads as parents drove their children to school.

This was contrary to the county council's policy of reducing car to school journeys. The decision was also unfair to the parents of pupils at the schools.

They already contributed to the schools through their donations to churches, which provided 20 per cent of the funding for faith schools.

Cllr Dunn's decision was discriminatory, he added, 'which will deny to many parents and children the faith school of their choice, and could distort the pattern of school choice, causing unacceptable pressure on the non-denominational schools.

'The county council expects really quite small savings after many years '“ 300,000 to 400,000 out of a total children's budgets of around 600m.

'This just does not seem sensible given the huge disruption and anger this is bound to provoke after ignoring the public view.'