FREE school travel will continue for pupils living in County Durham despite recommendations that its withdrawal would save the county council £1.3m a year.

Yesterday, cabinet members decided not to re-draw the existing three-mile eligibility boundary down to two miles because the move would have put extra financial burden on the parents of almost 4,000 children.

They also scrapped proposals to start charging non-eligible children who filled surplus seats on free school buses.

Education authorities only have a statutory requirement to provide free transport for pupils aged over eight living more than three miles away from their school.

Durham County is one of only a handful of local authorities in the region to maintain the former two-mile boundary.

County council leader, Coun Ken Manton, said 20,000 children qualified for free school transport in the county.

"To extend the boundary would mean putting an extra financial burden on hundreds of families," he said. "It would also have resulted in many more parents engaging in the school run, so adding to the number of vehicles on our roads and increasing the environmental impact of rush-hour traffic."

He said spending on school transport had risen from £6m in 1997 when Darlington pupils were included in the figures to more than £10m today.

He added: "There may come a time when we have to look again."

Last year, Darlington Borough Council changed the eligibility boundary to two miles, affecting hundreds of children travelling from rural areas of the borough to secondary schools in the town