Legal bid on cards in school bus row

The Friends of Llanfyllin School will hold a meeting tonight to give more information to all parents about its campaign to stop Powys County Council's ruling that the school must charge pupils from outside the high school's catchment full transport costs.

The group has received advice from an unnamed barrister which it says could lead to a challenge to the council's decision.

At the moment the school subsidises bus fares, but was found to have broken council rules earlier this year and has since been told to pay back £17,000 to the authority

Governors from the school held a meeting for parents on Thursday when they explained the details of the county council decision.

Among those at the meeting was Ruth Weston, chairman of the Friends of Llanfyllin School.

"It was a very negative meeting," she said. "Many parents, particularly those with more than one child, said that they simply could not afford the travel costs.

"However after the meeting the Friends group was able to reassure parents a little. We were able to tell the parents that a barrister has told us there is a strong plank that we can build on to bring the case for overturning the ruling."

She said there would be a full meeting for all parents and supporters tonight at 7pm when parents and the friends group will look in more detail at the barrister's advice and decide how to proceed to challenge the decision. At least £2,000 has been raised to pay for legal advice.

"We also need to look at how we can reassure the pupils," said Mrs Weston.

"We have heard that pupils are getting stressed and can not sleep."

A petition that was launched on Wednesday night on the change.org website calling on Powys County Council to change its decision has attracted more than 576 signatures.

Powys County Council has enlisted an independent barrister to look at its decision.