Parents 'left in dark' over £760 school bus bill

Lee Barron MP said council officials should apply common sense and sympathy

Parents of new secondary school pupils say they were not warned about a £760 charge for transport.

The buses were free when the schools were chosen, but North Northamptonshire Council changed its policy last year.

Lee Barron, the MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, said his inbox had been inundated with complaints and he urged officials to apply "common sense".

The councillor in charge of school transport insisted that the new policy was published on the council's website for parents to see.

Last Autumn, North Northamptonshire Council changed its policy so free transport was only available to the nearest suitable school.

But parents said they were not aware of the policy when they were choosing alternative schools - and only found out when bills arrived for this term.

The new charge affects school buses for pupils who do not attend their nearest suitable school

One mother, Michelle, told the BBC: "This is [the council's] policy that's changed, so they have a responsibility to make sure the people that need to know actually do know, so I feel that they should have perhaps spoken with all year sixes to make sure that everybody was well informed.

"They told me they told the school at the beginning of September but I've actually got a screenshot of where [the complaints officer] shows me where the policy was updated on the 19th of October.

"At that point, my school application had already gone in."

An exception has already been made for parents of children from Thrapston who attend Prince William School in Oundle.

Parents can pay for a place on a school bus if their child does not go to the nearest school

Mr Barron said he had received many emails from angry parents - and council officials should help them.

"What we can do is ask them to apply some common sense and some sympathy and empathy with the families," he said.

"Things can be on websites to tick a box, but, if people aren't being told, then basically it's not good enough to just turn round and say 'it was here or there' if people didn't know about it."

North Northamptonshire Council's Matt Binley said parents and schools were not kept in the dark about the policy change

Matt Binley, the Conservative council's executive member for travel, said: "We have followed statutory guidance laid out in the legislation to the letter.

"The policy was published in September. What's happened is a slight amendment has been made to the website because any time we make any slight change, even if we move a full stop, it says when the page was last updated."

He denied that schools and parents had been left in the dark.