THOUGH not gaining a total victory, parents have forced an overwhelming -- and welcome -- decision by Blackburn with Darwen Council on plans to axe subsidised school bus services.

Of the 17 that were proposed for withdrawal in a money-saving move, 14 are to be retained and children who used the other three will be able to use regular buses to get to school.

It was not just that the threatened withdrawal of the services provoked protest over the considerable inconvenience that pupils would have suffered. Parents were rightly upset at the risks health and safety risks that their children would be exposed to if the cuts went ahead.

In purely practical terms, the plans were flawed. They would have meant children sometimes having to catch two buses on scheduled services to get to school -- and having in some cases to travel in the opposite direction to begin with in order to connect with other buses in the town centre.

Nor were the alternatives to this chaotic prospect any better. It would have meant pupils -- even those of primary school age -- walking two miles and more in all weathers and in the dark in winter time to get to and from school. And if parents had, rightly, sought to avoid this by driving their children to school, the already vexed problems of 'school run' traffic dangers outside schools would have been added to considerably.

Amazingly, all of this was on the cards because of bureaucratic shuffling of resources. The government's bid to give schools greater control of education finances means that savings had to be made in services provided centrally by the council. But, surely, less painful targets could have been found for such cuts.

The council deserve praise for listening to and heeding the outcry. But they could have avoided provoking it in the first place when, as we now see, ways and means existed of doing so.