MP tables motion in Parliament calling for all sixth form students to have access to free school transport

Local MP Tim Farron has tabled a motion in Parliament calling for the Government to provide free school transport for sixth form students to help pupils in rural communities.

The motion calls for it to be a statutory responsibility for local education authorities to guarantee home to school transport for 16 to 18-year old students supported by government funding.

Currently free school transport is provided for children up until GCSEs.

However, in places like Sedbergh and Coniston whose secondary schools don't have sixth forms it's often impossible to access sixth forms at schools or colleges by public transport.

Last month Tim wrote to the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, asking how the Government could justify the discrimination against 16-18-year-old students since they raised the age that young people are allowed to leave education.

Tim said: "The issue of being able to travel to school or college is one that I'm hearing about more and more at my advice surgeries.

"It just simply doesn't make any sense for the Government to demand that young people carry on with education until they are 18, but at the same time take away the means which actually allows them to travel there every day.

"There needs to be a statutory responsibility for Local Education Authorities to guarantee home to school transport for 16-18-year-old students in the same way that there is for those students under the age of 16 - and the Government must provide them with the money do this.

"This continued discrimination against sixth form students must end now."