THIS week, I find myself wondering how I have not ranted about my chosen subject before today, given my frequent angry outbursts on this particular irritation of mine. Buses.

If I’m not missing them, I’m waiting 40 minutes for one or I’m being aggravated by the poor manners of some drivers.

They drive, no pun intended, me mental. To top all this off, Worcestershire County Council is planning to cut all subsidies from the public transport for school children.

This means that fees for our school bus passes will potentially go up, some of our bus services may stop running, and other formerly free bus passes will now have a charge.

I know the county council has a tough time with budgets, and I accept that there has to be cutbacks somewhere.

I am, however, left very concerned what this will do for school children around the area, particularly those who live on the periphery of the catchment area like myself.

It takes just under 40 minutes every day on the school bus for me, and although this bus is reasonably cheap, alternative routes cost as much as £850 per school year.

To raise this would be devastating for schools – I have schools that are geographically closer, however catchment areas are often spread widely.

I calculate that there are at least three high schools that are closer to me than the one I am in the catchment for.

This price rise would simply result in low numbers of students returning for sixth form, because how many parents could easily part with around £750 per year?

I go to state, government-funded school, surely how much my family earns shouldn’t be a factor in whether I can attend?

Children that live in my village and the surrounding villages did not choose the catchment lines, but we are penalised as though this were an active choice of ours.

I simply cannot believe that a child who lives within walking distance of school would be, over the course of sixth form, about £1,500 pounds better off before the prices are raised!

If jobs are as hard to get nowadays as society says, then I would ask the council why on earth they are all but pushing students away from their school’s sixth form and A-levels.

I’d hate to see students that could achieve good results and go on to university be limited to a college place because of the financial burden that sixth form posed.

EMILY HALL