CEREDIGION Council would bring itself into line with other Welsh authorities if it introduced a charge for sixth form pupils to travel on school buses, council Cabinet members have heard.

The council will launch a consultation on the controversial proposal that could see sixth form pupils charged £390 a year for a place on a school bus, with pupils in other year groups also being charged the fee if they use a school bus to travel to a school which isn’t the school nearest to them.

Education chiefs have admitted the move could see some students choose not to study A-levels with councillors raising particular concern that students from the Tregaron area, which has lost its sixth form, would be hit hardest.

But Barry Rees, the council’s head of learning services, said the move would see the council take similar measures to “most” other Welsh authorities insisting that the council is “probably at the tail end of this”.

Education Cabinet member Hag Harris said there was no “appetite” for introducing the charge, but said the council’s financial situation was a main consideration as there could be savings of up to £500,000 from scrapping the free transport that the authority does not legally have to provide.

He said: “Unfortunately the financial situation in Ceredigion has deteriorated substantially.

“I don’t think anyone will have any natural appetite for charging. The situation is this is not a report that I take any pleasure in presenting.”

While Cllr Harris said around £500,000 could be saved if every sixth form pupil and other pupil that receives free transport that they aren’t legally required to receive, paid the new charge, he admitted the actual saving could be less than that.

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