PARENTS could be hit by a £540 bill to send each of their children to the secondary school of their choice.

Oxfordshire County Council is consulting on plans to end free school transport to parents who choose to send children to a school further than three miles away from home – but only when there is an alternative school closer.

It is also proposing to increase concessionary school bus charges to £541.20 per year – or £180.40 per two terms – for students who live more than three miles away from their school and do not qualify for free school transport. The current charge is £164 per two terms.

Headteachers have described it as a “rural tax” that could see pupil numbers fall and lead to budgets being cut, jobs lost and even school closures.

County Hall hopes to save £340,000 a year once the scheme has been rolled out and said it would affect about 200 students in 2014, meaning it could affect up to 1,000 once it has been fully rolled out.

Jane van Velsen, 48, of Black Bourton near Carterton, sends her sons Max, 16, and Alex, 14, to Burford School. They both receive free school bus travel but live closer to Carterton Community College.

Mrs van Velsen said: “My biggest concern is that they are kind of forcing parents to send children to a certain school, which is not always the right thing to do for you children.

“There are going to be a huge amount of additional costs if this goes ahead.

“If half the Burford School students go to Carterton and then if the other half went to The Cotswold School, then they would have to build new classrooms at those schools.”

Burford School headteacher Kathy Haig said the changes could lead to her school, which has an intake of about 200 new students per year, drop to an intake of about 50.

She said: “For us this could be devastating and it feels like it is a rural tax.

“It would be fairly significant in terms of being able to deliver the curriculum because we would have to shrink the staff.

“As for the school closing, obviously I would hope that would not be the case, but you start to get into the danger margins as to whether the school is viable.”

County council cabinet member for children, education and families Melinda Tilley said: “If you want to go to another school that is not your nearest school then you have got a decision about whether you are going to pay for it or not.”

When asked if schools could close, Mrs Tilley said: “It is the worst-case scenario but I do not think it will happen because we need secondary school places and we will work to make sure it does not. Wherever else it has been done they have not lost a single secondary school.”

Independent county councillor Mark Gray said: “I don’t know exactly what I think at the moment.

“I need to talk to some parents and find out what they think about it because it’s not quite as straightforward as it first seemed.”

Council leader Ian Hudspeth refused to rule out implementing the policy, even if he saw data showing it would lead to school closures.

He said: “When we get all the consultation feedback we will be looking at all the data and taking all views into consideration before we make a decision on July 16.”

The county council spent £14m funding school transport in 2012/13 and 11,000 students receive free school transport a year.

At present, if a child is eight or over and lives more than three miles from their catchment school they are entitled to free bus transport provided by the county council, regardless of whether it is the closest school to their home. A family can live in the catchment area for more than one school.

The charges – if approved – will be brought in for new starters from September 2014 and will not affect children who already receive free school transport or whose parents receive the maximum Working Tax Credit or who are eligible for free school meals.

The consultation is open until July 3 and can be viewed on the county council’s website oxfordshire.gov.uk