Parents and pupils have been celebrating after winning an 18-month battle for free school transport.

The county council has agreed to lay on free transport to children from Wickford who attend the Catholic Our Lady of Ransom Primary School in Rayleigh. It will cost the authority £47,000.

Elizabeth Baker, 40, of Birch Green, Wickford, whose son attends the school said: "We are absolutely delighted with the decision."

Following a decision by the Diocese of Brentwood to switch the designated school from St Anne Limes in Basildon to Our Lady of Ransom, Essex County Council had agreed to provide free transport for all children starting at the school from September 1999.

But the concession only affected around ten children and resulted in taxis being offered to the handful of youngsters.

It also meant children who had just started were entitled to free transport but elder brothers or sisters would not be able to get in the taxi with them.

So parents began fighting for free transport for all children coming from Wickford, delivering 98 letters and a petition of 682 signatures to the council.

Kathleen Perkis, of Wick Beech Avenue, Wickford, who has two boys at the school, said the situation where one child could have free transport and another from the same family could not was ridiculous.

Francis O'Brien, headteacher at Our Lady of Ransom Primary School, said: "It will take cars off the road and make the area safer for the children."

Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors opposed the move on the grounds of cost but Tories managed to push it through by just two votes. The free buses should be up and running after Easter.

We've won! - pupils celebrate the news that they will get a free school bus

PIcture: STEVE O'CONNELL

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