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A petition calling for non-Catholic pupils of St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School to be allowed on the same bus as Catholic students has gained almost 300 signatures in just 24 hours.

It comes after a controversial new policy to only give free bus travel to Catholics at the school came into force this month and mum-of-three Emily Hill was furious to find out her twin daughters would be unable to use the bus, even as paid passengers.

The council decided to axe the free bus travel to students admitted to the school who are not Catholic in order to save in the region of £100,000.

Emily’s daughters Tiana and Ella, 11, will now be forced to use public transport to get from their home in Shotton to the school in Flint.

She is now calling for the community to sign the petition in the hope that all students will be allowed to use the school bus and people from as far away as Australia have given their support.

Ms Hill said: “I made this petition so that Flintshire County Council can see that this doesn’t just affect the families involved, this affects the community as a whole. We are joining together to show that we cannot and will not stand for this kind of discrimination, it is 2014 not the 1900s!

“I really don’t think that the council are looking at the bigger picture here. Longer journey times for all children travelling will result in tired children. Tired children perform worse in exams and therefore will not end up with the grades they could get if they were getting a shorter day.

"Less buses will also result in less children being sent to St Richard Gwyn for these reasons which will in turn create job losses, making the economy suffer.”

She added: “We are not asking for a free seat, we want to pay for available seats that are there on the buses.”

However Flintshire Council say they cannot offer seats on the bus where public service routes already exist.

Chief officer education and youth Ian Budd said the council may need to make further changes to the assistance they provide to families who use school transport, due to the need to slash £18m from the county’s budget.

He said: “Flintshire County Council always seeks to understand and reflect on information from communities. However, it does face limitations, for example, it cannot act as a trading transport provider where public service routes exist.

“More significantly, given the funding reductions facing local authorities, many councils have reviewed their discretionary transport provision over recent years. Discretionary transport includes denominational (faith school) and post 16 provision. The funding reductions ahead are likely to mean further changes in discretionary transport in many places.”