TEENAGERS in rural areas of Monmouthshire may have to reconsider their career options as financial support to help them get to college looks set to be withdrawn.

As part of its cuts to save £9m in 2013/14, Monmouthshire council plans to stop giving £200 to post-16 students which goes towards their travel. This would not apply to current students but to new applications.

Students wishing to take up a concessionary seat on a buses with spaces to schools would also be hit hard in the pocket.

For the first time since 2006, the cost is due to go up, from £1.34 per day to £2.

Students and their parents will be paying out an extra £125 per year if this plan gets the green light.

Due to Monmouthshire’s being a large county, there is a chance that some pupils will not be able to afford to study at their chosen institution, according to the council’s passenger transport manager Richard Cope: “There may be some difficulty, we are quite a rural authority. Some may face hardship getting to the different colleges and young people may have to study closer to their homes as they can’t afford to travel further.”

Withdrawing the £200, a non-statutory element of transport, would save the council around £130,000 over two years.

The extra charge for concessionary seats would bring in £29,000 over the same period.

The planned cuts come at a time when Wales’ bus services are under threat, as operators had been told to expect a 37 per cent cut in their payment from the Welsh Government for carrying bus-pass holders.

Mr Cope said forming the case for the transport changes was not an easy one.

It is one of 37 cost-cutting measures Monmouthshire council is considering.

But he added: “We can’t carry on doing this as it currently stands. Every part of the council is under pressure. It’s not easy for us at all.”

Debby Blakebrough, an independent councillor who represents the ward of Trellech United, said: “It’s a rural issue again. If you can walk to school fine. Not only do we have less leisure and youth services, we are now saying we are going to make it difficult and expensive for kids to get to school.

“ I think some may not bother to go or parents may pay to take their children to sixth form across the border. They may work in Bristol and drop their children off on the way.

“There is this perception in rural areas that everyone is rich and that is not the case. The bare minimum we should provide for all kids is free transport to school. Longer term, I fear it may not be financially viable for some sixth forms to stay open.”