FURIOUS parents say they have been stung with £670-ayear school bus bills because they weren’t told about changes to free transport rules.

Children leaving St Andrew’s Primary, in Marks Tey, have a choice of going to the Stanway School or Honywood, in Coggeshall.

Under the old rules, children in the village qualified for free bus passes to both schools, as long as they lived more than three miles away.

But from September, new pupils can only claim free transport to the school nearest to where they live.

Shocked parents claim Essex County Council failed to tell them about the rule change, which will cost them hundreds of pounds a year in bus fares.

Richard and Kate Crabb chose to send daughter Emily, 11, to the Stanway School.

But her free bus pass application was turned down because Honywood is just a fraction of a mile closer to their home, in Godmans Lane.

Richard, a project manager, said: “Apparently it came in last year, but no one was informed about it.

“The schools didn’t know, the parish council didn’t know and parents didn’t know.”

The couple say it will cost them £670 a year.

That will double if youngest son Joshua, eight, goes to the same school as his big sister when he moves up to secondary school.

Mum Kate, a teaching assistant, says it is now too late for them to switch schools.

She said: “We can’t move Emily because there is a 30-person waiting list at Honywood, so we don’t have that option.

“More than £1,300 is a horrendous amount of money to pay out a year when you are already buying books and sports equipment.

“It’s just a nightmare.

“When we applied for schools we put Stanway first and Honywood second. We did what we were told.

“Then they said they’d changed the rules, but by then there was nothing we could do about it.”

“I’ve spoken to many parents and no one was aware of this.”

Emily’s parents are determined to fight the ruling.

The county council has defended the move and said existing secondary school pupils will continue to get free transport if they already qualify.

A spokesman said: “The council’s school transport policy for children newly-starting secondary school from September is to provide free transport to the nearest school if this is three miles or more from their home.

This is in accordance with statutory responsibilities.”

He added: “The new policy was agreed in the spring of 2014 and publicisedwell in advance of parents applying for secondary school places for September 2015.

“All of the admissions information published in the autumn of 2014 made the new policy position clear and advised parents to carefully consider the transport policy before making their school applications.”