A BRIERLEY Hill charity has accused Dudley Council of taking “a cheap shot at the hardest hit and most vulnerable” in its latest bid to save cash.

We Love Carers is fighting against plans to axe a free transport service for children with additional needs - a move that would save the council more than £200,000 per year.

The council currently pays for 49 children to be transported to specialist nurseries across the borough, although it is not legally required to do so.

Children's services boss Councillor Tim Crumpton said only 11 youngsters would be affected if the plan went ahead from September.

He added that he was confident the proposal would work as many of the families affected were in receipt of benefits that include a mobility component which could be used to fund travel costs .

But Marc Carter, CEO at We Love Carers, said it "wasn't easy" for families with children under five to claim mobility benefits and added: “If they did get it, it would never cover the cost of a taxi as the costs are astronomical.

“The council is saying only 11 children will be affected but that is only this year, what about the 40 plus children that will come into the system from September? Don’t they count?"

Mr Carter, who was among the 20-strong crowd who staged a protest outside Dudley Council House last Wednesday, said a public meeting would be held in the near future in an attempt to influence the decision.

He added: "A lot of parents are incredibly vulnerable and don’t have the energy to fight, which is where we come in.”

Lorraine Griffin from Dudley has two sons who attend different specialist nurseries and said the proposal was “unthinkable and unjust”.

The 42-year-old who is mum to Sam, aged three, and two-year-old Ben, said: “These nursery placements are imperative to our children's lives, what if they can no longer go? What then?

“What if like me you have two or even three children in different nurseries? Our day to day lives are difficult enough without the services we rely on being taken away - not to mention the developmental issues if children are taken out of their placement."

Stourbridge mum Esther Mandale told the News she previously used the service to get her disabled daughter to nursery.

She said: "If this wasn't available she wouldn't have been able to access the specialist nursery, which would have been detrimental to her development as she wouldn't have coped in a mainstream setting."

The 40-year-old said she would not have been able to afford daily taxi fares as she didn't qualify for a mobility allowance until her daughter was five-years-old.

Councillor Ian Marrey said his son Jude, now aged seven, benefitted from the service in 2010 and added: "Had that not been in place, it is very unlikely he would have been able to go to a specialist nursery. The council's proposal to scrap it is predicated on the idea that children get a mobility allowance which works out to about £57 per week.

"The majority of children under five wouldn't qualify for it unless they were profoundly disabled.

"My son qualified but many parents wouldn't get that £57 per week support for additional costs and if they had to provide their own transport, they wouldn't be able to afford it.

"The council shouldn't scrap something if there isn't alternative provision in place.

"At the moment, all this proposal would do is exclude a lot of kids from a very important provision."

People have until March 2 to have their say on the plans via www.dudley.gov.uk.