FREE school transport for school or college students aged over 16 years will be withdrawn in Monmouthshire from September.

At a meeting of the county council's Cabinet yesterday members agreed the introduction of a flat rate charge of £200 for each student per annum.

The fee would apply to students entering sixth forms or colleges in the new academic year and not to those who were already attending.

Head teachers from Monmouthshire's four comprehensives in Abergavenny, Caldicot, Chepstow and Monmouth, had opposed the withdrawal of free transport as they felt it would deter students from furthering their education.

In a county-wide consultation process 1,700 letters had been sent out but only 40 responses had been received. Most of these focused on the decision to withdraw the free transport and made little comment on the charging policy.

Chairman of Monmouthshire's lifelong learning and leisure select committee, Councillor Peter Fox, had earlier commented that post-16 students had a difficult life without imposing additional burdens.

He said he had no doubt there would be some families who would find it difficult to find the additional cost.

The council plans to introduce charging to all post-16 students in 2006/2007 realising an income l from front page estimate of £100,000. The deficit for the first year beginning in September would be £50,000 and this shortfall would have to be met within the lifelong learning and leisure revenue budget.

A 50 per cent discount will be available to parents on income support, income-based jobseekers allowance, child tax credit where parents have an annual taxable household income of less than £13,910 or parents who receive support under the ImmigrationAct.