OTHER parents affected by Monmouthshire council withdrawing transport for people with learning difficulties have said they are still waiting to hear from the authority about what to do next.

Last week we wrote of the plight of two 17-year-olds with autism, Liam Jenkins Jones and Sophie Fieldhouse, who were left to get to college on their own after Monmouthshire council stopped their taxi and minibus service.

And Jackie Corner, of Strongbow Road, Chepstow, whose 20-year-old daughter Stacey Clemente is undertaking a life skills course at Coleg Gwent in Newport, said: “I have heard nothing from the council. We are all running around but no one seems to have any answers.”

Tara Hammond, of Castle Lodge Close, Caldicot, said during the summer she had been told transport was guaranteed for her daughter Samantha, 17, only for it to be withdrawn during the last week of August.

She said of her daughter: “She’s got learning problems and no sense of danger. She will go off with strangers; she’s got to have 24 hour supervision. It’s very dangerous.”

Now Ms Hammond is rushing to take her daughter and pick her up from college, which makes it difficult to arrive on time for her cleaning job at Caldicot School and is an expensive drain on her finances.

Stacey and Samantha both used a minibus to get to Coleg Gwent in Newport last year which picked up students from Chepstow, Caldicot, Magor and Caerwent.

Monmouthshire council said last week they had recommended possible alternatives to parents who had been refused transport this year and notified them from August 6. But all parents we spoke to said they were informed in the last week of August.

Armand Watts, the Monmouthshire councillor who is working with parents to resolve the transport problems, said: “No one wants to take the trouble of meeting with me and the parents and the children who have been excluded and discriminated against.”

The leader of the council’s Labour group, Dimitri Batrouni, said: “The Labour group is utterly opposed to SEN transport cuts. I had a sister who utilised that transport and it was vital for her education. These are the last people we should be making cuts to.”