PARENTS say they are facing a £660 bill to send sixth form pupils to The Blandford School.

In the past it has cost students in the village of Spetisbury £240 a year for subsidised travel on Wilts & Dorset’s X8 service.

But cash-strapped County Hall has called a halt to the discretionary passes. Parents now face paying £60 a month in bus pass fees – £660 over the academic year.

Parent Julian Black, whose 16-year-old daughter, Bryony, is studying four A-levels, said those in neighbouring villages closer to Blandford were still getting the subsidised fares.

“I completely understand the need to reduce costs in our current economic situation but why cannot it be spread evenly across all students who use buses?”

Some parents would have to drive their children to school, increasing the traffic on the busy A350, he added.

Dorset County Council has designated Spetisbury Primary School a “feeder” school for the secondary school in Blandford, including it in the Blandford schools pyramid.

Its transport team leader, Terry Spracklen, said bus travel for sixth form students was a discretionary service.

He said sixth form students from families in receipt of benefits and living over five miles from school would continue to receive subsidised travel on commercial bus services where there was no alternative service contracted by the council.

Sixth formers from families in receipt of benefits but living less than five miles from school, or those at any distance whose families did not receive state aid, would pay for travel on commercial services, or be offered subsidised transport on council services, he added.

Sixth form students in Spetisbury who received a subsidised pass in the last academic year had done so following a clerical error.