Plans to save £6 million by cutting free home to school transport have been shelved after it emerged that 5,000 Birmingham children could lose their bus passes.

Cabinet education member Les Lawrence said the impact would have been “devastating” for young people and parents. His decision was taken after a three-month consultation uncovered widespread opposition to a city council cost-cutting plan which would have ended Birmingham’s generous allowances for free school transport.

In order to save £6 million a year it would have been necessary to revert to the statutory minimum provision laid down by the Government – free travel for five to seven-year-olds living more than two miles from school, and for eight to 16-year-olds living more than three miles from school.

That would have meant just under 3,000 youngsters losing their bus passes, while about 2,000 pupils with special needs would no longer qualify for free trips to and from school in taxis.

Although the proposal is in the council budget, which was approved in March, Coun Lawrence (Con Northfield) said the savings were now unlikely to happen.

He added: “We have consulted and at this point we have no plans to bring in any changes to the basic nature of the services we provide.

“We had intended to save £6 million, but to be honest I don’t think that is going to be achievable. The changes required would have been devastating to a large number of parents and to the young people themselves. We have listened to what people have said and are changing our proposals accordingly.”

He is looking instead at a number of ways of making the existing transport system more efficient, including the possibility that more special needs children could share taxi journeys to school, reducing the number of vehicles the council has to hire.

Birmingham is one of a few councils to provide a far more generous level of school transport than the criteria set down by the Government.

The budget for home to school transport has been consistently overspent over many years, Coun Lawrence admitted.

There were also fears that any attempt to remove free travel from pupils with special needs could plunge the council into another legal battle over allegations that it is ignoring its statutory responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Attempts to scrap social services care packages for about 5,000 adults were overturned in the High Court after a judge ruled that the council had not consulted properly about the impact of the cut and was in breach of its duties to promote equalities under the Disability Discrimination Act.

The decision left the local authority with a potential £30 million shortfall in the adults and communities budget.

And a move to withdraw funding from voluntary organisations resulted in a similar High Court ruling, with the council found to have acted unlawfully.

The council’s opposition Labour group welcomed the rethink, claiming that the impact of the transport cuts would have been too harsh.

Deputy group leader Ian Ward (Lab Shard End) said: “This would have been unfair on parents who have chosen the most suitable school for their children on the basis that free travel is provided, especially for children with special needs who often face a lengthy journey.

“I know these are difficult times and there are no easy answers, but cutbacks have to be done in a way that is fair.’’

Assistant finance director in the children, young people and families directorate, Jane Brown, said 7,000 children currently receive free travel.

Asked to comment on the proposed changes before they were scrapped, she said: “We estimate very few pupils will be eligible for bus passes on the basis of distance alone – these are likely to be low income and exceptional cases.

“For special educational needs cases, we estimate that approximately half of those in receipt of assistance will see a reduction in the level of assistance.”

She added that some SEN pupils who benefit from taxi journey at the moment might then be eligible for bus passes.