ANGRY parents will boycott a school bus over safety fears amid a row about school transport.

The refurbishment of Arriva's carriages on the Esk Valley line from Middlesbrough to Whitby means seat numbers will drop from 200 to 150.

Bench-style seats providing five seats per row will be replaced, with modern seating offering two places at either side of the aisle.

A train protection warning system will be installed and on-train monitoring and recording, the equivalent of black boxes on aeroplanes and costing £3.4m, to make the trains safer.

The route is used by pupils to get from their moors homes to school in Whitby, and the changes mean there are not enough seats for them.

North Yorkshire County Council, the local education authority (LEA) says from September pupils from Castleton should go to school by bus, under a policy stating all children must have a seat on school transport.

But parents, who fear the new arrangements are unsafe and impractical, confronted the LEA and Arriva representatives at a public meeting this week.

Richard Hill from Arriva said a national shortage of rolling stock meant it could not provide extra carriages to increase seating on trains for the children.

But Coun Herbert Tindall said: "You say there is a shortage of rolling stock, yet you found four carriages for Whitby Regatta - you came up with the extra ones there."

Mr Hill said this was an exception. He said the refurbishment could not be delayed, and that it had been planned for months - which raised questions about why parents had not been told about the plans sooner.

Some parents said they hoped the firm did not have its Esk Valley franchise renewed next year, as it was school pupils who kept the line going, and described Arriva's refurbishment as resulting in a second rate service for their children.

Parents at the meeting were against sending children on the 15-mile bus journey to school on the notorious A171 moors road, an accident blackspot, and questioned the logic of using buses in winter when Castleton could be cut off.

Ginny Nevin, the county operations manager, explained that Castleton was chosen because the village was on a priority one gritting route and there were about 50 youngsters from the area travelling to Whitby.

"We need to get 50 children off the train and on to a bus and if you look at the chances of getting them out in the winter with roads being gritted, Castleton is the main contender," she said.

One parent replied: "You have chosen the children from the village furthest from Whitby to go by bus. There have been three fatal accidents on that road this year."

Another said: "I'm not putting my kids in this position. You don't live here so you don't know what these roads get like in the winter."

Parents asked the LEA for rail passes, so children could still go by train, even if they had to stand.

But Richard Owens, passenger transport manager at the county council, said he could not go against policy.

Many parents said they would buy train tickets for their children instead: "Their safety comes first. If we have to pay ourselves, that's what we will do. They either go on the train, even if they have to stand, or they don't go at all," said one parent