PARENTS in North Yorkshire will have to pay hundreds of pounds a year for their children to travel to faith schools in the region.

The new system, which will begin in September next year, means annual permits for children attending denominational schools outside their catchment area will cost £350 as council chiefs look to save millions of pounds.

However, children attending non-religious schools outside their catchment area will not be affected by the changes, North Yorkshire County Council must slice £15 million from the budget covering its children and young people’s service over the next four years, and its executive made the decision after a three-and-a-half-month public consultation process over its home-to-school transport policy.

But opponents of the new charges, which will see families with two or more children at a faith school being charged £525 for a yearly travel permit, say it risks damaging the region’s reputation for “diverse education” and could prevent pupils whose parents are on low incomes being sent to faith schools.

However, the council said its school transport budget was “under very significant pressure” and the faith-school element provided benefits to some families which others did not have, meaning parents who choose to send their children to schools outside their catchment area for religious reasons should be responsible for the cost.

Cynthia Welbourn, the authority’s corporate director for children and young people’s services, said there was “no joy” in taking the decision and efforts were being made to protect “key aspects of services which matter to children”.

Coun John Weighell, the council leader, said the authority had been forced to take another look at the system because of “extreme financial constraints”.

But Coun John Blackie said he felt some of the objections raised by residents had not been dealt with and he would have preferred to have seen cuts being resisted.

The council said it had also considered an alternative, which would have been based on shared transport areas for secondary faith schools and local community schools, but this could have created problems and limited the amount of savings which could be made.

However, free transport will be available for primary school pupils who receive free school meals and attend a faith school between two and five miles from their home.