CHILDREN in rural areas will be unfairly hit by planned school transport rule changes, councillors say.

Swindon Council gives free home-to-school transport to pupils aged five to 16 who attend their catchment area school or another where the council has offered a place.

They must also live more than two or three miles from the school and, dependent on age, be without a safe walking route.

But the local authority is consulting on plans to change the policy’s wording from “catchment school” to “nearest school” to avoid future financial risk.

Hundreds of new homes are to be built on Swindon’s fringe, including the Eastern Villages, and under the current policy the council would be responsible for transporting children to their catchment area schools despite there being a nearer school in the urban area. This could cost an extra £546,516.

In addition, academies have powers to change or abolish their catchment areas, meaning an academy could designate the whole borough as its catchment area. The council would then be responsible for transporting children from afar.

The planned change to the rules would only apply to new students from September next year. Old arrangements would continue for students eligible for assistance, but younger siblings in the same family would not be eligible for council-funded transport to the same schools.

Coun Dave Wood, the Lib Dem group spokesman for children’s services, said: “The council’s proposals to split siblings into different schools are, I am sure, well intentioned but might appear penny-pinching and uncaring. The cost of allowing rural families to all attend the same school is probably low and will be an issue of great importance for those families.

“The council is right to be generally concerned about school transport in the academy age and when Swindon is much larger. However, as the academy question is not certain, and we cannot be realistically sure when Swindon will expand, this all feels like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer.”

Coun Andrew Bennett (Con, Ridgeway) said: “As you know we have a poor local bus service in the rural areas, but this risks siblings travelling in different directions at the same time with no direct bus services if not provided by SBC or the school itself. The scope for parental choice is likely to be reduced unless they chase around by car.”

Council leader David Renard said: “We as an authority have a legal obligation to fund transport under certain circumstances, and because we can no longer predict what catchments are going to be in the future, the fairest way to fund transport is to the nearest school.”

If the new policy was applied to the 255 pupils currently receiving transport, 151 pupils attending Ridgeway but who live in Wanborough, Bishopstone, Liddington, Badbury and Hinton Parva, would only get transport to Dorcan. Also, 76 Warneford pupils in Blunsdon would only have transport to Isambard.