Hughes backs students in fight over transport costs

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 18th Sep 2006

Liberal Democrat president Simon Hughes was in Hexham last week to support local students in their campaign to reduce transport costs.

The Labour-run NORTHUMBERLAND County Council is being challenged on its school transport charges. The council raised transport costs for post-16 students from £235 per year to £360, a 50% increase, earlier this year. The rise followed the council's failure to apply for thousands of pounds for post-16 transport available from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

Hexham Lib Dem councillor Derek Kennedy said: "We have contacted the LSC and requested figures to find out how substantial the failures have been.

"The LSC has informed me that in the last four years Northumberland received £112,028 in grants, compared to Durham receiving £850,403 and Cumbria £682,690.

"It is obvious this failure is much bigger than first thought and goes back several years. Our students now have to bail out the council because it has not claimed the correct amount of grants. I suspect the failings run into hundreds of thousands of pounds."

The students, who all attend Haydon Bridge High School, met Simon Hughes and Coun. Kennedy to discuss the problem. They feel they have been let down by an incompetent council, and are having to pay £360 each to make up for its failure to obtain grants.

Commenting on the issue Simon Hughes said: "I will write a parliamentary question to Education Secretary Alan Johnson and ask for a league table of student charges across the country, so we can find out how Northumberland students are treated compared to their counterparts nationally.

"We will attempt to put further pressure on the Labour county councillors for their unfair treatment of the students."