ANGRY parents are campaigning to get rid of a dividing line in an Oxfordshire village which means some children pay for school transport but others get it free.

Oxfordshire County Council's education department defends the system and says to bend the rules for one area would be unfair on others.

Disgruntled parents who live north of the Plough pub in Sutton Courtenay and send their children to the single-sex secondary schools in Didcot have to pay whether using the school bus or private transport.

Children who live south of the Plough get free transport because they are within the three-mile catchment area. The cost is £60 per term.

Children living in the north of the village qualify for free transport to Abingdon schools, but not to Didcot.

Ken Giles, who lives in Brook Street, north of the Plough, sends his son, Toby, 11, to St Birinus School in Didcot. He said: "It is better suited to his needs but because we fall just outside the free transport dividing line we have to pay. School transport should be free to all children in the village."

John O'Shea and his wife Kim, of Appleford Road, send their son Luke, 11, to St Birinus too.

Mrs O'Shea said: "It is a matter of choice and we should not have to pay to send him to Didcot. It is unfair."

Sutton Courtenay Parish Council agrees and wants the anomaly removed.

County councillor Margaret MacKenzie is also taking up the fight.

She said: "The whole thing is a nonsense. It divides the village and is unfair."

Education department spokesman John Mitchell said the three-mile rule had been drawn up with a view to securing fair and reasonable entitlement to free transport while bearing in mind the cost to council taxpayers.

abingdon@nqo.com