A 13-year-old boy has been unable to get to school for more than two weeks due to bus timetable changes, with Ceredigion County Council saying he is not eligible for transport to his chosen English-medium secondary school as there is a Welsh-medium school closer to where he lives.

Pedro Silva, who lives in Tyn-y-Graig, has been attending Ysgol Penglais in Aberystwyth since he was 11.

His closest school is in Tregaron, but his dad Francisco Silva said as Pedro is “not fluent in Welsh” he has been going to the Aberystwyth secondary school by bus instead.

This year, however, changes to the bus timetables mean there are now no guaranteed services to take Pedro to school and with his parents working shifts he has been unable to attend school at all, and the council are “refusing” to allow him a pass to board a service that does run from the village each morning.

Mr Silva told the Cambrian News that all he wants to do is pay for a pass to allow his son to return to school.

While a Ceredigion County Council spokesperson told the Cambrian News that it “cannot comment on individual cases”, the spokesperson said that “direct contact has been made with the pupil’s family”.

In a response sent to Mr Silva from the council’s central CLIC complaint system - seen by the Cambrian News - the council said that Pedro “is not eligible for transport to Ysgol Penglais as this is not the nearest school to your home address”.

“Following a recent procurement exercise for the provision of learner bus services in Ceredigion, unfortunately, due to there being no operators willing to undertake the YP25 services in accordance with the specification tendered for, we had no alternative but to make changes to the service,” the council said.

“This service will no longer accept non-eligible fare paying passengers at any stops along the route and it will also no longer travel via Penparcau and Aberystwyth Bus Station.

“This means that non-eligible pupils will have to find an alternative means of travelling to school.

“Non-eligible pupils (Year 7-11) travelling from Pontrhydfendigaid, Ystrad Meurig and Tyn-y-Graig to Penglais School who had intended to use this route may wish to consider the alternative YP24 service.

“However, spaces for non-eligible fare paying learners will be available on a first come first served basis and cannot be guaranteed as priority will be given to eligible learners.

“Whilst appreciating your frustration with regards to this situation, I hope it explains the reasoning behind the decision.”