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Hundreds of secondary school children across Caerphilly will have their free school transport taken away at the end of the summer term.

The council abandoned plans last year to raise the minimum qualifying distance for transport from two miles to three.

It instead commissioned reviews of walking routes around the borough, and has now used the findings to declare nine routes as ‘safe’.

From September, pupils living along those routes and within two miles of their secondary schools will be expected to find their own way to lessons.

A Caerphilly County Borough Council spokesperson said the changes were “likely to cause concern and disappointment” but said the authority “must take a fair and consistent approach in the application of our transport policy”.

The council’s opposition leader has warned “safety must come before policy”.

This week, parents in affected areas have begun receiving letters outlining the changes, informing them any hazards found during previous safety checks “have now been mitigated”.

“As a result, the walking route between your home and your child’s school now meets the Welsh Government’s safety criteria and falls within the two-mile eligibility distance,” the council letter read. “This means that your child therefore no longer qualifies for free school transport.”

Distances have been calculated using the shortest available walking routes to school and were subject to “robust and consistent assessment”, the council spokesperson said.

Cllr Charlotte Bishop, who leads the council’s Plaid Cymru group in opposition, has questioned the accuracy of the safety reviews.

She said one route, from Abertridwr to St Cenydd Comprehensive, “includes a 40mph stretch of road with limited pavement access, and an alternative cycle path which is isolated and poorly lit”.

Describing public transport alternatives as “unreliable”, Cllr Bishop said the safety reviews “fail to account for seasonal conditions, particularly during winter when children may be walking in darkness”.

Caerphilly’s Senedd Member, Lindsay Whittle, said “parents are very angry, and I share their anger over the routes announced by the council”.

Some of the routes include “very fast” or “dangerous” roads, he added.

Cllr Jamie Pritchard, who leads the Labour-controlled council, defended the changes and said Caerphilly remained “one of only a few local authorities in Wales that offers such a wide access to free transport for pupils”.

He also expressed “surprise” at the current Plaid criticisms, after the proposal to remove free transport for pupils within two miles of their schools was included and open to consultation in this year’s budget.

Cllr Nigel Dix, who leads the independents in the council chamber, suggested the new policy was a “sleight-of-hand” after decision-makers dropped a plan to extend the minimum qualifying distance for transport last year.

He said the council was “still making cuts” to a “significant number of routes, and it’s going to have an impact on many children”.

But Cllr Pritchard said the council had “listened to residents’ concerns” and had not revived that proposal.

“My position is clear – no change to the statutory distances will be taking place,” said Cllr Pritchard. “Caerphilly will continue to find the money to maintain one of the most generous home-to-school transport policies in the whole of Wales.”