A SPECIAL needs pupil can no longer go to school because she lives less than 200 yards under the distance needed for a council taxi service.

Jade Lees, 14, of Marlow Avenue in Walcot, has found herself stuck at home because she lives 2.9 miles away from Crowdys Hill School in Gorse Hill.

If she lived three miles away from the school she would qualify for a taxi service which would take her directly from her home to the school.

Before last Friday, October 20, Jade used to be picked up by a taxi, which would take three other pupils to the school.

But, because of a new council money-saving policy, the service has been cut.

The service for distances under three miles only runs now for pupils who are seen as especially vulnerable if they walk.

Jade goes to the special needs school as she has learning difficulties and is deaf in one ear. Due to eye problems when she was younger, Jade fell behind in mainstream schools and with her ear problems she has found it impossible to catch up.

Jade's mother Suzanne Cullan says there is no bus service linking her home to the school. If her daughter wanted to travel by bus she would have to travel on one service to the town centre and then catch a connecting bus to school.

She said: "I was only given a week and a half's notice that this service was going to be cut. She is really settled at her present school and we are really worried about what this will do for her education.

"There's no way I or her father can get her to the school every day as he has only just started a new job and I cannot drive.

"This is ridiculous as my daughter is vulnerable and I can't believe they expect her to walk or cycle nearly three miles a day on her own. I would be worried about whether she actually attended the school every day."

During the summer the council ran an unsuccessful recruitment campaign to get people to walk special needs pupils to schools.

Council spokeswoman Lynda Fleming said: "Jade was assessed as being capable of getting herself to school, so the taxi service was no longer needed.

"There are pupils who have special needs who live closer than Jade but they have been assessed as being vulnerable children Jade has not been assessed as being vulnerable."