A COUNCILLOR is asking for a new bus service after teenagers in her ward were allocated high school places in another town.

Several youngsters who live on the east side of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal were this year allocated places at Accrington's Moorhead High School, rather than nearer Norden High School in Rishton.

And Coun June Butler says the only bus service that can take pupils from Rishton to the Queens Road West school is the Hyndburn Circular, which first goes through Great Harwood and Clayton-le-Moors.

She said: "It takes five minutes to walk to Norden from over the bridge but could take an hour for them to get to Moorhead if they have to rely on the existing bus service.

"This is something we really must fight."

Mrs Butler has an appointment with the admissions department at the Lancashire Education Authority (LEA) to discuss the matter in January and also hopes to bring it up with Hyndburn's new bus forum, due to commence soon.

She said: "Once I heard about the new forum I thought I must be in on this as a representative for Rishton because we do have problems with the buses here."

She says there used to be a service which ran from the centre of Rishton straight into Accrington but it was withdrawn because it was not used enough. Now, she said, Cranberry Coachways runs an hourly service on that route but only between 9.20am and 2.50pm, which is at the wrong time for schoolchildren.

The LEA says it has not made changes to the admission policy for Norden High School or Moorhead High School although placements can vary.

A spokesman said: "Differences in which children obtained places this year reflect the variations from year to year in factors such as the location of home addresses and numbers applying to the school.

"The allocation will depend on numbers applying and their priority against the criteria in the published admission policy."

Before her meeting with the LEA Coun Butler will discuss the problem with representatives from bus companies serving Hyndburn at the bus forum meeting.

A spokesman for Cranberry Coachways, based in Rishton, said: "We are quite prepared to discuss this matter and see if we could come to some sort of arrangement by putting on an earlier and later bus if the demand was there."

A Lancashire United spokesman also confirmed the company could look into the matter.

He said: "Lancashire United is always prepared to discuss its services and customers and operates closely with Lancashire County Council.

"We have not yet been approached by this particular councillor but if she contacts the commercial director Duncan Allan at the Blackburn depot we will be very pleased to talk to her."