CHILDREN face being late for school after transport chiefs cut a much-needed bus service at half-term to improve the reliability of others.

Birchwood High School pupils from Culcheth must now either get a bus an hour earlier, turn up late for registration or get a lift in on already traffic-clogged roads.

"It doesn't make sense to us," said mum Lesley Smith, whose son, Joshua, gets the number 28 service from opposite Culcheth library at 8.01am.

"There are quite a few other children who use this service and when we are trying to ease congestion and curb greenhouse gases. By doing this Warrington Borough Transport has, in effect, put another five cars on the road."

Mrs Smith, from Newchurch Lane, said the first she knew of the change was when 11-year-old Joshua, who has learning difficulties and special needs, tried to board only to be told to get off by the driver because he wasn't going past the high school.

"Joshua was really confused and rang me, asking: What should I do, mummy?'," she said.

"Because he is a special needs child he is not at all independent but the one thing he could do each day is catch the bus himself."

Another mum, Miriam Kletz, said parents had been unaware of the changes and would now have to drive their children to school.

"I have a 12-year-old daughter in Year 8 and my son starts there in September," she said.

"They apparently posted a notice up in the bus but what young child takes notice of that?

"It would have been a good idea to tell the school and get them to communicate it."

WBT's managing director, Nigel Featham blamed congestion for the rise in complaints from adult customers about reliability and said something had to give.

Missing out Birchwood on every other service has been given the overwhelming thumbs-up by the majority of customers," he said.

Putting a second bus on to get the Culcheth children to school on time was not sensible economically' he said.

He admitted, however, that perhaps WBT should have informed Birchwood High School about the changes but insisted that introducing them during a holiday period was commonplace and allowed the new schedule to settle down'.