PARENTS plan to bring Hereford to a standstill to show the city the chaos scrapping free transport to church schools could cause.

The protest on June 21 will go straight to the steps of Hereford Shirehall to make its point just 48 hours before Herefordshire's Council's cabinet debates the future of free buses for church schools.

Protest organiser Ann-Marie Impey expects at least 100-150 cars to converge on St Peter's Square.

Those cars, she said, would have been circling the city from around 3pm on a mass school run intended to stop traffic, said Mrs Impey.

"We will bring the city to gridlock. Once our children are collected we will be outside the Shirehall in protest and bring home to the council what it will be like every school day with up to 800 more children on a failing road network," she said.

Cabinet meets on June 23 to decide the future of free transport to church schools.

Other options open to members include parents helping cover the costs of the subsidised scheme or limiting free transport to a specific distance from schools.

A review of the scheme was ordered earlier this year. Meeting in secret session, members were told that the present policy and the way it worked left the council open to legal challenges.

To stop the scheme from being scrapped, parents of pupils at the county's faith schools have a series of protest actions and meetings organised.

Backed by both the Anglican Diocese of Hereford and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff, they say that their rights and choices would be breached if the policy ends.

Both Herefordshire MPs joined the debate this week. Bill Wiggin said the potential for further congestion alone should see the council "think again".

Paul Keetch wants the council to re-think its entire school transport policy and get more buses on the road.

Mr Keetch hopes Herefordshire can be one of the trial areas for a US-style yellow school bus scheme that the government could include in its education bill.