Parents in isolated communities fear cuts in a transport subsidy could deny their children nursery education.

Grants from the Countryside Agency and the Single Regeneration Budget have helped provide a 16-seater minibus taking Upper Weardale youngsters to nursery schools in Stanhope and Rookhope.

But with the funding no longer available, parents are pleading for help to keep their children at school.

Children over five are given free transport to their nearest primary, but under-fives do not get the same support.

Durham County Council has found funding kept the bus on the road until the summer, giving time for Weardale's community transport co-ordinator Bob Dennis to find a solution.

But mother Vicky Brown, a non-driver, from Daddry Shield, fears her two-year-old son Anthony might not get the nursery education she values.

She said: "I don't drive so the bus is the only way of getting him to Rookhope nursery.

"I think it is very important that young children go to nursery. For some living in a rural area like this, it is their only contact with other children. "There is also the question of the future of the schools who need the nursery children to be viable.

"They want new families to move into the dale, but they won't if they face these sort of problems.

Parents have collected signatures for a petition and have called a public meeting in the Barrington Hall, St John's Chapel, on May 17 at 6pm. Weardale Taxi owner Paul Smith could be forced to sell his bus if the cut becomes permanent.

He said: "It is the only 16-seater but I can't afford to keep it on the road without the subsidy. This could have a knock on effect on other services as we could lose a driver as well."

Rookhope Primary School head Alison Aitchison said: "It is nobody's fault but the parents are very determined to do something about it. "We offer a good quality pre-school education and it would be very difficult for the children if that came to an end because of transport problems."