EXMOOR school children could receive free transport to their nearest school as well as their catchment school.

Somerset County Council is calling for people in Somerset to give their opinion on a consultation which proposes to offer pupils of Dulverton Middle School free transport to their nearest secondary school.

Kingsmead School in Wiveliscombe, in the Taunton Deane district, takes children from the age of 11 and has widened its catchment area to include those in the Dulverton Middle School catchment area as of the September 2015 intake.

Currently, the children who live in the Dulverton area are only offered free transport to West Somerset College in Minehead, but the consultation proposes that these children are offered free transport to Kingsmead School, which is their nearest school.

The consultation comes as controversial plans to change the age range at Dulverton All Saint’s School and Dulverton Middle School were dropped by SCC earlier this year.

The plans put forward were to address a funding crisis and proposed that All Saints First would become an infants school and Dulverton Middle School would be a junior school.

The consultation document states that “due to the large geographical area, Minehead is not necessarily the nearest school for pupils at the age of 13”.

If the proposals go ahead the intake at West Somerset College could be affected.

At a meeting in December the governing body of the college decided to oppose the proposal “in the strongest possible terms”.

They said they felt “aggrieved” that the support for the schools in that area by the college, such as providing teaching staff, was not acknowledged by the county council when putting forward the consultation.

Mrs Cerys Randell, chair of governors at the Quantocks Academy, said though the children at Danesfield School will not be directly affected her board of governors would support West Somerset schools.

She said: “It has a knock-on effect for all schools in West Somerset because of West Somerset College looses places, then that means there will be less resources and then Danesfield School children will be affected.”

Dulverton Middle School did not wish to comment.

The consultation will end on Friday, January 16, and can be seen at www.somersetconsults.org.uk