DEVON County Council is considering cutting funding for sixth form students’ school transport from September this year.

The local authority is holding a consultation on its education transport policy which will run until the end of June.

If the cuts come into effect, it will leave schools and colleges having to foot the bill out of their own bursary schemes, and will surely have the most impact in rural communities.

Roger Pope, principal at Kingsbridge Community College said: ‘The official government line is that there’s a statutory duty for local authorities to facilitate post-16 students.

‘We will always do what we can to support students in need. And the learners support bursary is intended for that purpose.

‘But we can’t use it to fund transport costs for all students regardless of financial position. This cut may therefore cause significant problems.’

‘There will always be families who have a couple of cars, and the spare time to take students to and from school, but most students do not have this advantage.

Mr Pope continued: ‘The problem will be with those people who live remotely, and don’t have a network of family and friends to help. We know that public transport is sparse.

‘Our own budgets are under pressure, so we don’t have spare money to assist all students.

‘We don’t want any situation where students are excluded due to transport. That would be a tragedy.’

Julian Brazil, county and district councillor said: ‘I’m very disappointed that the county council is considering cutting the support to those that need it most.

‘Supporting children to get the best education whatever their circumstances should be a top priority – it is for me.

‘The county has got this wrong and should think again.’

There are roughly 350 post-16 students at Kingsbridge Community College, and the potential cuts come off the back of previous financial squeezes on students, including the scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance grant in 2010.

A Devon County Council spokesman said: ‘We are currently consulting on changes to our post-16 transport policy proposed for the start of the 2017-2018 academic year. No decision will be made until the consultation period closes at the end of June.?‘There is no entitlement to school or college transport after the age of 16, and there is no statutory duty on local authorities to provide a formal post-16 travel scheme. ?‘However, there is a duty to consider whether support is essential to facilitate continued participation in education.?‘If the proposed policy changes are agreed, the county council would expect that parents will take travel arrangements into consideration prior to their child applying and accepting a place to study at a school or college. ?‘Where public transport services are available, we would expect that parents will make their own arrangements to pay for a bus or rail ticket and, where assistance is necessary, they can approach the college through their bursary scheme.?‘Devon will only consider providing travel assistance where a parent can evidence that he or she is unable to make other arrangements to get the student to and from college and that the absence of local authority travel assistance is an unsurmountable barrier to education.’?Full details of the proposed policy can be read on the Devon County Council website, searching for ‘education transport policy’.?Those wishing to comment on the consultation can email [email protected], or write to The Policy and Strategy Officer (Education), Room L102, County Hall, Exeter, EX2 4QD.