A mum is demanding a refund for her daughter's £450 bus pass - as the "dreadful" service makes the pupil late for school almost every day.

Linsey Hall, from Boughton-under-Blean, between Canterbury and Faversham, says some younger children are regularly left in tears as the packed Stagecoach X3 just drives past.

Her daughter Lara has only been able to catch the service six times since the start of September which has left her "very anxious".

Mrs Hall has no time to give the 13-year-old a lift to Canterbury Academy, as she also needs to drive her youngest child to school and get to work herself.

"The morning bus is so full that it just goes sailing past and leaves her standing there," said Mrs Hall, who works as a mobile hairdresser.

"It makes me and my daughter very anxious, and other parents have told me the same thing.

"It's particularly bad for the Year 7s. They stand there just crying. They’re stressed about going to secondary school in the first place."

"They just don’t care, but they’ll happily take the money off us..."

Mrs Hall says that after Lara's regular 7.45am bus fails to stop, she often has to wait an hour for the scheduled 8.15am service to finally arrive, causing her to be late for school.

It means Lara consistently misses morning "mentoring" sessions at Canterbury Academy, where pupils have the chance to catch-up with their tutor.

After shelling out hundreds for a Kent County Council Travel Saver - the bus pass that gives pupils 50% off on fares to and from school - Mrs Hall says she feels entitled to a refund.

"We are paying Stagecoach around £450 a year for a bus pass which is absolutely disgusting, as she's only managing to get on the bus to come home from school," she said.

"How can they have a conscience? They just don’t care, but they’ll happily take the money off us. It’s just not good enough - I'm at my wits end.

"We have emailed Stagecoach on several occasions but to no avail - they simply do not want to know."

Stagecoach has suggested Lara could catch an earlier bus.

A spokesperson for the company said: "We operate three buses in the morning through Boughton towards Canterbury.

"The first of these is at 0725 which we swiftly substituted for a double deck in September to help with capacity.

"The next bus is at 0745 which is also a double deck, and there's a further double deck bus at 0815.

"Overall there is sufficient capacity to carry everyone that needs to travel.

"The 0745 bus is a busy service and we encourage students to use the first bus at 0725 which has plenty of spare capacity."

Mrs Hall says she would like to see more X3 routes added so that children in her area can get to school on time.

But at a county council meeting last month, members agreed to cut funding for Stagecoach, meaning there will soon be even fewer buses on the roads.

Council leader Roger Gough said cutting the subsidies was necessary to balance KCC's budget for this year.

Thirty-eight services are scheduled to be axed from February 12. To see if your route will be affected click here.

The cost of a Travel Saver went up this year from by 21% from £370 to £450.

Canterbury Academy Trust and KCC were approached for comment.