A NEWTON Abbot girl with a debilitating medical condition cannot start secondary education because she has been refused free transport to the only college she believes can provide for her.

Hope North, 12, of Buckland, was thrilled to get a place at Coombeshead College, but was devastated by the news she cannot go because Devon County Council will provide a taxi only if she attends Newton Abbot College, just 500 metres closer to home.

Yet county council money has already paid for preparations for Hope's arrival at Coombeshead, including appointing her carer from Bearne's School and making ready two disabled rooms and a shower.

No preparations have been made at Newton Abbot College.

Hope was born with a cloaca, a con genital malformation that affects her bowel, urinary tract and reproductive system. She also suffers from epilepsy and has only one kidney.

Her condition means that she is often in pain and exhausted, cannot use public transport or walk to school.

Hope's mother, Tina Hicks, applied for free transport at Easter but it was refused and her subsequent appeal turned down.

She appealed again in June but was told that her case will not be heard until September, meaning Hope cannot start school at the beginning of term.

Mrs Hicks told the Advertiser: 'Because of her condition Hope really needs to get from A to B as quickly as possible, but at £16 a day we just can't afford a private taxi for her.

'Now Hope can't go to school because it would be impossible to send her to Newton Abbot College as she has no carer there and her name is not down to go.'

Mrs Hicks registered her daughter with Coombeshead because she believed Hope's siblings at the school – Roxanne, 15, and Bradley, 14 – and her friends from Bearne's would support her there.

She said: 'Coombeshead have bent over backwards to accommodate her and I just can't believe that the same council that has arranged everything now won't give her a way of getting there.'

Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross has written to the Department for Children, Schools and Families to help Hope's cause.

He said: 'This is a situation where common sense needs to be applied rather than bureaucratic regulation.

'The schools are effectively next to each other and the cost in fuel to travel that extra 500 metres is negligible.

'If Hope can be better schooled and helped at Coombeshead then the council should just accept that.'

A county council spokesman said: 'The council considered that all of Hope's special needs could be met at her designated and nearest school, Newton Abbot College.

'Mrs Hicks made an informed decision to send Hope to Coombeshead and was advised that she would be responsible for transport arrangements.

'She has previously sent two of her children to Coombeshead College and made transport arrangements in respect of those children – this situation is no different.'