EDUCATION chiefs have ruled out a u-turn on a decision to axe funding for pupils attending a Gaelic secondary school despite growing concerns about disruption for affected pupils.

MSP Stuart McMillan has accused the council of 'jeopardising pupils' wellbeing' by withdrawing support as part of budget cuts.

He says it must keep free transport in place to allow pupils to go to the school in Glasgow until alternative provision is set up in Inverclyde.

He said: “Until such a time, I believe that transport should continue to be provided for the pupils who currently attend the school.

"Expecting them to make their own way to Glasgow, when there was an expectation from parents that transport would be provided at the time of making the placing request, is unfair.

"Parents have told me that they wouldn’t feel comfortable with their children making this journey on their own, and that doesn’t even begin to take into account the social impact it will have on the pupils if they are unable to engage in out of school activities due to the length of time it takes to get to and from school.

"From engaging with parents, it’s clear that communication from Inverclyde Council has been lacking.

“As the local MSP, my role in this is limited, but I have written to the Scottish Government on this and have been engaging with parents and Bord na Gaidhlig to try to open up channels of communication and get answers for parents to help inform their dialogue with Inverclyde Council.”

But local authority leader Stephen McCabe has hit back at the MSP's criticism over the cuts.

He said: "Stuart McMillan has not spoken to me about this.

"There is an easy solution to this - the Scottish Government can give us a fair settlement so that we don't have to make the cuts in the first place.

"The reality is it is ironic the only reason we are cutting transport to the Gaelic Secondary School in Glasgow is because the Scottish Government is not giving us the funding settlement we need for next year's budget.

"Both Stuart McMillan and the parents need to understand that.

"We don't want to make any cuts but it was decided unanimously by all the councillors, including the SNP elected members, that this was one of the less difficult cuts to make.

"We did not want to do it, but we are faced with really difficult choices and the decision was unanimous."

"Next week we will be making more cuts to community organisations.

"But this can be avoided by the Scottish Government which Stuart McMillan represents."