REORGANISATION of school bus routes left Callington School pupils, living in a small hamlet near Stoke Climsland, stranded on Monday morning.

The pupils, who live at Kingston, now face the prospect of having no school bus to take them the four and a half miles to their lessons - because their usual transport has been phased out.

Instead they are faced with having to walk around a mile down a narrow, country lane with no footpaths, until they reach an ordinary bus stop at Stoke Climsland.

Fergus Parsons, whose daughters Alice, aged l5, and Eleanor, 14, were left high and dry with no school bus on Monday, said: 'The lane they now have to walk down is so narrow, and used by so much traffic, that I have warned the county council that a child will be killed if they expect pupils to walk down there every day - especially when winter comes with the dark mornings.'

The Parsons family were meant to have been informed, by letter, that there would be no further school bus service for Alice and Eleanor, but never received one. Nor did neighbour Mike Marshall, whose son Daniel is also affected.

Mr Parsons said that the full-sized coach which has been used since his daughters started at Callington School, has apparently been replaced by a mini-bus.

This picks up pupils at Goosewell, Tutwell and Luckett, but does not go to Kingston.

He said: 'Goosewell is only a short distance away, and I feel that we live no nearer the school than the pupils at Goosewell.'

He contacted the county council after the bus failed to take Alice and Eleanor to and from school on Monday.

Mr Parsons said: 'I was told that 6,500 letters had been sent out about the changes in school bus services because apparently there have been many alterations, but we didn't receive one.'

He said that although Kingston is a small hamlet there are a number of younger children there, who will need transport to Callington School in the coming years.

The new school bus arrangements, brought in to rationalise the service, were noted in a letter home to parents whose children attend Liskeard School and Community College.

This said: 'We know very little about the new contracts, but we are concerned about the unofficial reports we have been receiving.'

They said staff are keen to chase up problems with county staff, and if new contracts are an improvement they will pass on that information too.