Bishop intervenes in school bus row

BY CHRISTINA FARRELL
Ti in BISHOP OF Brentwood has stepped into a row about school bus charging which he says discriminates against Catholic children.
Bishop Thomas McMahon, has written to local MPs calling for a proposed charge for buses taking children to denominational schools to be dropped.
Children at four Catholic schools in Essex: the Ursuline convent in Brentwood, St John Payne in Chelmsford, St Mark's at Harlow and St Benedict's in Colchester, will have to pay up to £100 a year if the charging is approved.
A spokeswoman for Essex County Council confirmed that public consultation for the proposed scheme ended last Tuesday, If approved the charges would be introduced from January 2004.
Bishop McMahon said: "These charges will mean that, for many parents, a Catholic education is far too expensive for their family. Many Catholic families have three or more children and, if most of them are of secondary school age, the charges will become a great burden. The effect of this proposal will be to deny those in the greatest need the opportunity for a Catholic education for their children.
He continued: "The spirit of the 1944 Education Act was that, as the Catholic Church was a significant provider of schools in the maintained system, their pattern of distribution would be made on the understanding that Local Education Authorities would provide free home to school transport. Unfortunately, the wording of the Act categorises this arrangement as discretionary. There are some Shire counties already ceasing to honour the spirit of that Act by declining to provide transport."
The bishop said the scheme ran counter to current Government advice, to reduce congestion, which encourages parents to walk their children to school or to use public transport. He said parents would be forced to drive their children to school or seek alternative nonCatholic schooling closer to home.
If approved the scheme would provide a "very unfortunate precedent for other Shire counties to do the same," he said.