MORE than £250,000 of spending on school transport for disabled children will be reduced while many pupils have been left stranded without a way of getting to school.

After a Freedom of Information request from Conservative councillors, a briefing from Brighton and Hove City Council admitted it aims to make savings in the special needs school transport over the next two years.

The council plans to make £269,000 in net savings in the next two years.

But the council admitted it was “saddened our aims did not go as planned” and will launch an independent review into the school transport crisis.

Conservative deputy leader Mary Mears said parents would be “outraged” the Labour administration aims to make savings at a time when some children do not have transport to school.

She said: “Leading Labour councillors have repeatedly stated that this is not about cuts and children with special educational needs and disabilities should not be affected.

“Yet they are doing precisely that.

“Parents and carers will be outraged to hear that at a time they have no transport, this Labour Administration on the one hand says sorry and on the other oversees spending reductions.”

The city council said three school transport routes have still not been organised, leaving more than 20 children with special needs with no way of getting to school.

The briefing seen by The Argus claimed a “permanent solution” will be in place by October 14.

The crisis originally began when a number of companies contracted to take disabled children to school pulled out shortly before the start of the school term.

Tory councillor Lee Wares said his Freedom of Information request had “exposed the full extent” of the savings.

He said: “A transparent and open administration should not have to be forced to admit this by councillors using Freedom of Information legislation.

“That said, given these shocking figures, it is no wonder they tried to hide the detail from the public”.

A spokesman for the city council said it was not cutting any school transport budgets over the next two years.

He said: “All families who are assessed as needing home to school transport will continue to receive the services they are entitled to. In this respect provision is not being cut.

“But the budget has been overspent in recent years and costs have been increasing.

“We have a duty to take steps to manage costs and reduce the overspend.

“The measures we are putting in place aim to drive down average unit costs.

“This year we aim to make a net saving of £19,000.”