REMOVING free school transport for up to 1,000 pupils a year will cause howls of protest. There always is when you remove a service and ask people to pay.

But surely there are two underlying problems about why children end up at schools that are not their closest that Oxfordshire County Council should be tackling to make this decision almost irrelevant.

One is that parents choose a school that is further away because the closest is, they believe, not up to scratch.

While it may be naive as an aspiration, surely our council as the local education authority must ensure that there are no ‘sink’ schools.

The reality is, though, that there are and so you cannot criticise any parent for selecting the best available education for their child. But that is a conscious choice and in these times of tightened public spending there is surely an arguable point that it is not unreasonable they bear the cost of their decision.

And this policy, as floated, would protect free travel for families who face genuine economic hardship.

However, what about families who have to send their children to a school more than three miles away because their closest is oversubscribed?

That is not their fault and it was disturbing last night Melinda Tilley, the head of education, was unable to say if they too would be forced to cough up.

The council has to make hard decisions and govern.

Any move to make people pay for services that were free previously will never be happily accepted, so it is now down to the authority to ensure that it fully explains and consults before it makes an open and transparent decision.