Monmouthshire County Council has stood by its initial decision to revoke free school transport for over 300 children, and says there will be no changes for the for the following academic year.

Following a public consultation and what it describes as a “political process”, the local authority announced it would be making changes to its school transport policy.

The new measures will see free passes only offered to secondary school pupils who live three miles or more from their school and two miles for primary schools.

In a statement, the Council Leader, Mary Anne Brocklesby, defended the commitment to increasing the primary school boundary by half a mile and the secondary school boundary by one mile.

“The council is one of the last in Wales to go beyond the home the school transport distances required by law,” she said.

“By reverting to the statutory distances, we’ve been able to redirect this money into our schools to support education for all our learners.”

“If we had the funding, we would not have done this; however, it is a result of a sustained period of underfunding for our public services. For the last three years in a row, we have faced increased annual cost pressures of over £20 million. That’s 10 per cent of our budget, year after year.”

While concerns remain that the local authority is passing on the financial burden to parents, the councillor who was responsible for the decision at the time, who has since resigned from the Cabinet, is on record as having said he is fine with this.

Earlier this year, Cllr Martyn Croucutt said: “I do not buy the argument that there is so much poverty in Monmouthshire that it is an actual physical thing that stops children getting to school.”

The council has also confirmed that there will be no further cuts to services for September 2026.