Parents of children who were denied places on their school bus because it was too full have formed an association to take matters into their own hands.

Children from Bicester have been travelling on Oxfordshire County Council buses to the Marlborough School in Woodstock for years.

But in June the council told parents their children would no longer be able to catch the bus.

Parent Rob Nicoll, of Kestrel Way in Bicester, said: "They told us they had so many children in catchment that they could no longer take children from Bicester. It really presented a huge number of parents with a massive problem. So we set up a scheme ourselves."

More than 30 parents formed the Bicester Parents' Bus Association, clubbing together to pay £28,000 to hire a private coach for a year to take their children on the 11-mile trip to school.

Mr Nicoll, whose 12-year-old daughter Abbie is a pupil at Marlborough School, said: "The schools in Bicester were not achieving the same levels as Marlborough. They say you have got a choice but it's very difficult to exercise that right if you can't get your kids to the school."

The 49-seater coach takes 34 pupils from Bicester to Woodstock and back every day, and stops off in Langford Village, Bure Park and Shakespeare Drive as well as the villages of Kirtlington and Middleton Stoney. It costs £84 a month per child -- compared with about £50 before.

Bicester MP Tony Baldry met parents and children at the official opening of the service on Wednesday (September 21).

He said: "We hear a lot about parental choice in schools. But what's really complicated is that if parents elect to send their children to a school out of catchment they get lumbered with the transport costs.

"I think if ministers genuinely want to see parental choice in schools it's something they are going to have to look at. The Bicester Parents' Bus Association is to be congratulated for taking the initiative. They are exercising the choice they have been given."

Michael Waine, the council's cabinet member for schools improvement, said: "I admire their initiative.

"But I have expressed to them my personal sorrow that they did not choose Bicester secondary schools, where there are very positive things happening."

The new headteacher at Bicester's Cooper School, Ben Baxter, said he was disappointed parents felt they could not support the town's schools.

He said: "There is always a view that the grass is greener.

"The fact that we have gained specialist science status is a tangible sign of our achievement. If a pupil is capable of gaining 10 A*s, they will get that here."

For information on the bus call Val Wright on 01869 247846.