Parents need more support to meet the cost of school transport

I am exceptionally lucky to have some superb schools in my constituency. Many parents are really spoilt for choice, and they are able to enter their youngsters for admission to the historic Clitheroe Grammar School,or apply to send their youngsters to a rather large Comp in the centre of Clitheroe with an enthusiastic teaching staff and good results, or a smaller more rural school in Bowland which has excellent sports facilities and ensures that some youngsters are accommodated in an atmosphere which can appear more intimate. We have excellent faith based schools outside of Clitheroe offering excellent education which are both well sought after.

I have always believed in education being free at the point of delivery but I am also aware that parental choice is vitally important and sometimes comes at a cost. Uniforms can cost, and there are always the school visits. The real problem can hit parents though when they find out that their choice has a transport impact.

Increasingly Local Authorities have decided that they are no longer going to carry the optional duty to pay to transport youngsters who have to travel to a school of choice if it is not the nearest school. This is weighing heavy on hard taxed and working families who see their earnings being ransacked to pay over £500 for each child to go to school.

If you live more than three miles away and you pass one school to go to another school of your choice, then tough, and you are expected to pay. If you are a catholic living in Chipping then you pass a non catholic school first. The absurdity is that both schools are within yards of one and other- but tough!

If you live in Waddington and you take the school which you are encouraged to take by the LA then tough, as the nearest school is in Clitheroe and you have to pay. It is bonkers.

I want the discretion to be removed from local authorities. I want real parental choice to be offered without the small print levy which can be expensive, especially if you have more than one child. I see this as a form of discrimination and it must stop.

If you go to the Grammar School and pass another on its way then wallop again. This is a punitive financial punishment on academic success. That is some Alice in Wonderland treatment of parents and children that they don't teach in lessons on logic, as there is no logic.

I am angry that the LA will not even countenance allowing the youngsters to even get off at the nearest school and walk. It is appalling.

In my view the discretion must be removed from LAs, and they must ensure that youngsters are ferried to the school of their choice with no exorbitant taxation to the parents via the full costs of the bus ticket.  This creaming of the parents has crept in. Now we have discovered this dreadful treatment of parents it should be stopped without any further hesitation.

Nigel Evans is the Conservative MP for Ribble Valley