Questions about how a council's significant projected budget underspend tallies with withdrawing bus subsidies for post-16 students were asked last night.

Rutland County Council is currently predicting a £500,000 underspend on its current in-year £58.4m budget for the year, due to more money coming into its treasury department than expected.

The good news for the authority's finances comes after a decision made earlier this year to scrap post 16 funding subsidies, meaning families whose teenager started sixth form or college this September faced paying up to £1,000 for a bus pass. The previous cost was around £600.

The decision, which was made by the Liberal Democrat cabinet in May after the budget was set in February, has been heavily criticised by residents, many of whom were not aware of the extra charges until just days before their child was due to begin their student placement.

At a council meeting on 25th September, scrutiny chairperson Cllr Lucy Stephenson (Cons) said the strength of feeling from residents needed to be listened to and suggested the topic was looked at again for the year ahead.

Cllr Tracey Carr (Ind) asked cabinet member n Andrew Johnson (Lib Dem) how the projected underspend was to be communicated to residents in light of the removal of the bus subsidy. He said the issue of post 16 fares had been 'debated long and hard'.

He said the authority had looked at other authorities and had also 'felt it was important' to not burden all residents with subsidising the fare.

He said there was a hardship fund available for families who could not afford the bus fares and that to change the policy now would be the wrong move.

Cllr Stephenson said that while other councils had dropped their bus subsidies, Rutland is in a 'unique' position because it only had one state school sixth form (which is academic and does not offer vocational course) plus two private schools which were out of the reach of many.

Cllr David Wilby (Cons) said the bus subsidy cut should have been brought to the full council in February for 'interrogation'.

Chief finance officer Kirsty Nutton said the councillors needed to be aware it was only the first quarter report and there could be a £400,000 overspend on the council's overall transport budget. She said there was also a projected £4m overspend on the special needs budget.