A councillor has criticised the Labour leaders of Cheshire West and Chester (CWAC) council for ‘failing to listen to his concerns over school transport costs.

Conservative councillor Adrian Waddelove, who was elected to Farndon in May this year, said that he believes helping youngsters and their parents to make the best education choices is ‘not a priority’ for Labour leaders.

The criticism comes after his plea for a review of the existing school transport policy was rejected, at Thursday’s full council meeting.

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"Their refusal even to debate the issue shows they are not really interested in helping real people with real experiences in the real world although they pretend otherwise,” he said.

"I wanted to tell them of one parent in my Farndon ward who has spent more than £13,000 over the years to send her children to Bishop Heber in Malpas where their best friends from the same primary school class were going.

“Because they lived at different ends of the same road and CWaC treated them differently.

"And I know of two current students from Farndon who are going to Malpas but will not enter the Sixth Form there because CWaC's will not provide free transport for their age group and, instead, they plan to travel to Wrexham on a service bus.

"The existing policy was introduced nine years ago and it must be time for some tweaking because it is clearly not working for some families but Labour's leaders used their majority to silence me.”

Formal meetings of all 70 councillors are scheduled five time a year.

"I was only elected in May and have been shocked at the extent to which petty party politics dominate the proceedings." he added.

"Obviously the Labour majority means that it can always win a vote.

“But, in my naivety as a new councillor, I assumed the ruling party would at least want to hear whether its policies are working and, if not, consider how to improve them for the benefit of the people they claim to serve.

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"How wrong could I have been?"

Cllr Waddelove was elected with under 50 per cent of the vote, beating his Liberal Democrats opponent Paul Roberts by 24 votes.

Labour is the largest party in CWAC with 39 seats compared to 27 seats overall for all other parties.

CWAC was contacted for comment.