Councils across Sussex are spending millions of pounds a year providing transport to take children to and from school.

The figures show the amount of taxpayers' cash being used to provide private hire vehicles for journeys rather than a child using public transport.

In some cases, councils are obliged to provide the transport if a child has special needs.

But there are a number of instances where pupils without special needs are being transported by councils.

As revealed earlier this week, West Sussex County Council spent £5,588,500 on transport last year - with £864,615 spent on pupils without special needs.

In East Sussex, the County Council is obliged to provide transport if a child lives more than three miles, or two miles if under eight years old, from their designated school.

If there is no appropriate public transport available the local authority may pay for the child to be transported by taxi. Children with special travel requirements may also be eligible.

The total spent on hired transport in the financial year of 2008/09 was £8,999,069, with £439,806 being spent on taxis and private bus and coach hire for primary schools and £1,895,457 for secondary schools.

The Council spent £6,663,746 on taxis for special travel requirements, pupil referral units, further education, external children's services authority and looked after children. The majority of this, £5,867,228, was spent on taxis for special travel requirements.

Brighton and Hove City Council spent £2,750,000 on various vehicles to take either disabled, special needs or injured children to school in 2008/09.

It said it does not transport able-bodied children to school for distance reasons.

A spokesman said: “These would be mainly minibuses or vehicles converted to carry wheelchairs and some are taxis.”

The amount of money being spent came to light when the parents of ten-year-old Daniel Foulds-Holt calculated it would cost the council £80 a day to ferry their son to and from school in a taxi.

Jeremy Holt and Ros Foulds, from Edburton, near Henfield, applied to send Daniel to Downlands Community School in Hassocks, but he lost out because they live 350 metres outside the recently changed five-mile catchment area.

Instead he will go to Steyning Grammar School which is 4.8 miles away. Despite there being a bus service from outside their front door to Downlands, Daniel will have to get a taxi to school in Steyning which has to be funded by West Sussex County Council.