UPPER Wharfedale School’s student leadership team’s project, Save Our Transport, was runner up in the 11 to 16 category of the national Speaker’s School Council Awards.

Year 11 youngsters were so concerned about the North Yorkshire County Council’s proposals to remove significant areas of home to school transport that they gathered views of fellow pupils and presented them in the form of a petition to local MP Julian Smith in London.

Although the bus subsidy has been removed despite the protest, the school has been able to ring-fence some existing funding to enable the bus services to continue.

The competition - run by Parliament’s Education Service on behalf of the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon John Bercow MP - is designed to celebrate the achievements of school councils.

Upper Wharfedale headteacher Andrew Taylor said: “With the competition receiving over 700 entries this year, this is a tremendous achievement and is testimony to the hard work and determination of all the students involved.”

Mr Smith visited the school on Friday to present a plaque and individual awards.