EDUCATION chiefs are being urged to introduce half-price bus passes for school pupils as part of a transport review.

The plea has been made by Liberal Democrat councillors in North Yorkshire, who claim such a move would bring environmental benefits.

The county council currently provides free passes for students who live more than three miles from school, but no concessions are made for those living closer. By the time youngsters attend sixth form, the limits goes up to five miles.

Liberal Democrat councillors say the result is that many parents take their children to school by car, adding to congestion at the busiest time of day. Sixth formers passing their driving tests are also more likely to use cars, it was claimed.

In a letter to authority heads of department, county councillor Claire Kelley said half-price bus passes were essential.

"Other local authorities are already providing this concession to students. It offers a number of benefits - it promotes independence for young people, it helps the environment by reducing traffic, and it boosts the use of public transport," she said.

Fellow Liberal Democrat Jane Blayney said: "Many young people do not realise that they will have to start paying fares to school themselves when they join the sixth form, although they were entitled to free school transport before that."

However, the authority's passenger transport manager, Richard Owens, said the cost of such an initiative could be a big deterrent and insisted enough was already being done.

"The whole school transport issue is being reviewed at central Government. There are some local authorities which provide very little or nothing at all," he said.

"We have about 20,000 children out of 80,000 in the county who are getting free transport, so we are not doing too badly."

Of the LibDems' proposal he said: "I can see where they are coming from, and it would fit in with our policies of trying to get people out of their cars and on to public transport, but the cost would be the big issue.