A MOTHER says she will stop her disabled son using his school transport after the service contract was given to another firm.

Claire Thomas, 26, of Newport Road, Cwmcarn, says next Tuesday she will stop her eldest child, Thomas Davies, nine, from using his new transport providers.

It follows the decision of Caerphilly county borough council to take the transport contract away from Disability Caerphilly Community Transport (DCCT) and award it to Phoenix Travel.

Thomas has been diagnosed as having severe global development delay which means that he has the mental age of a four-year-old. He attends Trinity Fields school in Ystrad Mynach.

Mrs Thomas has been joined in her stance by Annette Roberts, 40, of George Street, Cwmcarn, who says her ten-year-old daughter Kiesha Roberts will not be travelling on Phoenix minibuses.

Mrs Thomas said: "We are not prepared to let the council get away with this - why should we?

"Because our kids are so familiar with their transport we would have to drag them on to the bus kicking and screaming and we won't put them through that."

Mrs Thomas claims parents were only informed of the transport change in a letter from the council last week.

Since then, any attempts to contact the council to register their disapproval have fallen on deaf ears, she says.

But a spokesman for Caerphilly council said parents should not be concerned: "Although some of the drivers with Phoenix transport are trained to deal with special needs children, there are some who are not.

"This is not a concern from our point of view because drivers who haven't been trained will be. It is not a question of putting those children into the hands of inexperienced drivers."

But Mrs Thomas and husband Simon, 32 - who also have a three-year-old daughter Bethan and son Harry, two - say Thomas is very close to the staff of DCCT.

She said: "The staff are all fantastic with the kids and are trained specifically to deal with children with special needs.

"He has come on a great deal since he started at Trinity Fields but because of his learning difficulties, routine is a big part of his day.

"Now his routine has gone out of the window and he will become very upset - his learning is going to suffer."