MORE Monmouthshire pupils over 16 will need to pick up the tab for their school transport if a plan to cut a council travel grant gets the go-ahead next year.

Monmouthshire council is seeking to remove the post-16 travel grant from July next year to save £102,000 over two years.

It also plans to increase charges for post-16 and concessionary seats to £2 a day from £1.34 and then by inflation every year thereafter. The authority would look to save £60,000 as part of the plans, also over two years.

Councillors discussed the plans at County Hall in Usk at a special meeting of the authority’s Children and Young People Select Committee yesterday and said they were “broadly content” with them.

But independent councillor Debby Blakebrough said she was concerned about the impact on young people and how it might be a disincentive in carrying on with education or training.

She said: “I feel this is Groundhog Day for me, every year. There’s no sign of helping kids stay on at school. We’re suggesting you’ve got to get yourself there but that might cost £40 a month. We’ve looked at the bottom line.

“Post-16s will not have good mobility – that is what the policy is saying.”

The authority’s passenger transport manager Richard Cope said: “With post-16 [provision] it’s non-statutory. As far as low income or benefit families are concerned, there are reductions in the cost if they can provide us with the documentation and we can put payment plans in place.”

In council documents, Mr Cope wrote the increase for concessionary seats represents value for money as£2 would remain a fraction of the cost needed to get alternative transport.

Other proposals, which would look to save £130,000, include increasing the statutory distance a pupil must live near schools to be entitled to transport, introducing pick-up points and removing other feeder services.

The statutory distance would increase for pupils from two to three miles for secondary schools and one-and-a-half to two miles for primary schools if the plan is passed with the council’s budget next month.