Oxfordshire County Council's leader of the opposition Eddie Reeves received over 40 emails over the weekend from parents complaining about a bus scheme.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Spare Seats Scheme will affect several school transport routes around the county and hundreds of children will be affected by it.

The authority is offering pupils who do not qualify for free school transport a paid transport place.

But in a Tweet criticising the scheme’s withdrawal, Mr Reeves said: “Councillors deny parents choice over where their kids go to school.

“Conservatives do ‘it’ (and personal choice) better.”

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In another Tweet, Reeves said: “30 plus emails from parents this weekend pleading with Oxfordshire County Council not to withdraw its Spare Seat provision for kids taking the bus to school.

“Oxfordshire County Conservative Group, North Oxfordshire Conservatives and Oxfordshire Conservatives agree.”

After being contacted for comment, Mr Reeves added: "Parents and pupils are extremely worried about the future of Spare Seats, a scheme that has provided children with a safe, reliable bus service to school for over 30 years.

"Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors in charge of the scheme say that they do not know how many families will be affected in the first instance, but we understand that as many as 235 children could be affected with 1,149 more to follow.

"Conservative Councillors proposed a sensible amendment to today's budget that would see extra money invested into home-to-school transport to fix the immediate difficulties.

"We urge Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors to meet with us to agree how we can safeguard this vital public service."

Oxford Mail:

Pupils are eligible for the scheme if they do not qualify for free school transport but are given a paid transport place if there are spare seats on the bus.

The Spare Seats Scheme will be withdrawn for nine routes which includes the Marlborough school in Woodstock, Wood Green School in Witney and St Joseph’s School in Carterton.

In the past, the Conservative MPs Robert Courts, Victoria Prentis, David Johnston and John Howell have been very vocal and have criticised the county council’s decision to withdraw the scheme.

In early February, the council’s representatives had a Teams meeting with 40 Parents from Wood Green School who said they did not understand the economic or environmental arguments for withdrawing the scheme.

READ MORE: Parents fear hour-long walks in dark to school if bus scheme scrapped

Parents have been able to pay £224 this academic year for their child to have a seat on the bus, where available.

The council has said the scheme is no longer affordable but parents have argued they should have been consulted first to see if they were willing to contribute to the scheme.

A council spokesman said: “There are around 9,000 children – often with complex needs - who are eligible to use school transport in Oxfordshire.

"In any given year there will be spare seats on buses once these 9,000 plus children have been catered for and the council will continue to be willing to sell those seats to parents. The council is committed to the spare seats scheme.

“During every single year the council takes an annual operational decision about the number of spare seats based on a variety of variables including the numbers of eligible children overall and the tendering of individual services, which happens on average every three to four years.

"The numbers available in any given part of Oxfordshire can go up as well as down during individual years.

"Numbers will change as circumstances change each year.

“As regards the 235 parents and children affected by recent decisions, we continue to be in constructive dialogue and engagement with them about mitigations.”