CLOSING two schools in Colchester will cost taxpayers nearly £500,000 in transport costs a year, it has been revealed.

About 300 children on Mersea Island will face a likely trek to Thurstable School, in Tiptree, instead of Thomas, Lord Audley School, costing an estimated £131,500 more a year.

If they use public transport, it will take them more than an hour to reach Colchester, where they will then have to take another bus to the school.

It will still take longer to go cross-country to Tiptree using school buses, than it does to reach Thomas, Lord Audley.

Essex County Council is to approve the closure of Alderman Blaxill and Thomas, Lord Audley schools, as part of a £150million transformation of secondary education in Colchester.

The extra cost of transporting pupils who live in the south of Colchester to their new schools has been estimated at £444,000 a year from 2015.

Campaigners say the money should be spent on education instead.

Dave Harris, a Thomas, Lord Audley School governor and ward councillor, said pupils would be wasting time travelling on buses. He added: “I think it’s a waste of money.”

A further 350 pupils in Monkwick and the Cherry Tree areas of Colchester will probably go to Stanway School. As their journey is longer than three miles, they will be entitled to free transport, at a cost of about £237,500 to taxpayers.

Some children in Old Heath will be allowed free buses to St Helena School, while those in Rowhedge and Fingringhoe will be able to get transport to Sir Charles Lucas School, in Greenstead, at an estimated cost of £75,000 a year.

Kevin Starling, of Alderman Blaxill’s parent and community group, said: “If the schools had been left in place, it would have been cheaper to bring them up to standard.”

He was backed by Colchester MP Bob Russell, who described the proposals as “a nonsense”.

He said: “Over ten years, that’s more than £4million, which would transform education at Thomas, Lord Audley and Alderman Blaxill schools.”

County Hall is expected to agree the proposals next week. It will mean the last pupils will start at Thomas, Lord Audley School and Alderman Blaxill in 2011, before the schools close in 2015.

Consultation on the plans last year saw 96 per cent of respondents opposing the closure of the schools.

Stephen Castle, Essex County Council’s councillor responsible for education, said: “We are determined to achieve our goal of raising the educational standards and aspirations of young people in Colchester.

“We have unashamedly high ambitions for the children of Colchester, and firmly believe that this solution matches those ambitions.”