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The Tories have quietly ditched a scheme to spend £20 million ferrying a few hundred pupils up to 15 miles a day by taxi to their nearest grammar school.

Labour repeatedly called for the plan - which they dubbed a “Grammar school Uber” to be scrapped and for the money to be spent instead on school transport for all pupils which has been severly cut

The plan, announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond in the 2017 Budget, had been set to cost in excess of £5m a year and up to £5,000 a year per pupil.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

Meanwhile the grant supporting councils in providing school transport, usually buses, for disadvantaged and disabled pupils, was cut by £6 million a year from 2015-16.

Those cuts led to concerns that disabled teenagers no longer had a right to help getting to sixth form or college, pupils being

forced to move school, and families being charged hundreds of pounds extra.

The Local Government Ombudsman revealed at the time that they had received a 63% increase in serious cases relating to school transport.

In one case, a teenager with severe autism lost his transport allowance and was told that he should get to school by walking for a mile through an unlit area with no footpath, boarding a train and then changing to a bus, even though the boy’s condition meant that he had a significantly reduced awareness of danger and a problem with loud noises.

Hammond had told the Commons in his Budget speech: “Pupils typically travel three times as far to attend selective schools, so we will extend free school transport to include all children on free school meals who attend a selective school because we are resolved that talent alone should determine the opportunities a child enjoys.”

(Image: PA)

But in answer to a Parliamentary Question from Labour’s shadow education secretary Angela Rayner MP, the government has now admitted that the Department is not “taking forward plans for free transport specifically for children who are eligible for free school meals who attend their nearest selective school.”

Schools Minister Nick Gibb also confirmed the Department had returned the money to the Treasury because the Government no longer had plans to create new grammar schools.

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “It’s incredible that the Tories ever thought this was a good use of taxpayers’ money at a time when they are breaking their promises to protect funding for all children.

“It is absolutely unbelievable that this money has now just been handed back to the Treasury rather than reinvested in schools that face the worst cuts in a generation.

(Image: newcastle chronicle)

“Even as they tried to divert millions into their grammar school vanity project, disabled teenagers were left to fend for themselves and other kids are forced to change school for lack of transport. It tells you everything you need to know about the Tories’ real priorities.”

Karen Leonard, GMB national officer, said: “School transport has been cut to the bone leaving many families struggling to either pay for public transport or drive children to school themselves, leading to inevitable traffic jams, risks to pupils’ safety, and pollution around schools.

“It is shocking that this money, rather than being reinvested into school transport and pupil welfare, is being handed back to the Treasury.”