COUNCIL education chiefs have apologised to borough parents after a letter was sent out claiming free school transport provision will be “ceased”.

Toni Hubble, of Wordsley, received a letter from Dudley Council on April 28 saying her 10-year-old autistic son Callum, a pupil at The Brier School, is “not eligible” for home-to-school transport and his previous transport was “allocated in error”.

However, the council’s strategic director for people, Tony Oakman, said the letter was sent out as part of an ongoing review into the transport needs of all children in the borough.

He said: “We are writing out to parents as part of a routine review to update our records and ensure transport arrangements are appropriate for each individual circumstance.

“We apologise for any misunderstanding caused and would ask people who receive the letter to simply contact our school transport team to discuss their requirements.”

But Miss Hubble said the letter has caused her “so much distress”.

She said: “I received a letter saying that because my son lives less than three miles away from school, they are going to cease his transport.

“My son is autistic and cannot go on public transport as it overloads his senses and makes him ill and he can’t walk by roads as he is unsafe.

“I have spoken to his school and they said there are 20 other people who have received the same letter.

“I was so shocked when I opened it. With my sons condition I thought he was entitled to the transport as I don’t drive and I also have to walk my daughter to another school.”

Councillor Tim Crumpton, cabinet member for children’s services, said the council did not want to “upset or place stress on anybody” and the “strong” wording of the original letter has now been altered.

“A deadline date of May 22 was put on the letter so parents would contact the council as soon as possible so the review could be completed,” he said.

“I will personally speak to Miss Hubble and make sure her situation is sorted. All she has to do now is contact the council to update her son’s medical information.

“A number of parents who received the letter have contacted the council and nobody has been dissatisfied by the outcome.”

Russell Hinton, headteacher of the Kingswinford special school, said: “When the letters were first sent out to the parents their first port of call was to contact the school, but we were unaware of anything regarding changes to student transport.

“If the council had made the schools aware of the review we could have stopped the parents from getting into a distressed state.”