Parents in Keighley have won a victory in a three-year campaign for free school bus passes.

Bradford Council has now paid them compensation after admitting it made mistakes.

The deal was reached after 11 sets of parents of children at Parkside School, Cullingworth, complained to the Local Government Ombudsman.

It found that the Council should have consulted parents before changing the school bus pass policy and criticised some of the Council's procedures.

The parents had been left out of pocket after paying for their children to get to and from school since 1999.

The watchdog has praised the authority for agreeing to compensate parents.

The Council refuses to say how much it has paid out in the deal, but parents have been reimbursed for the travel costs, pupils have been provided with free bus passes and each family has been given another £25 to compensate for the time and trouble of bringing complaints.

Neil Hobbs, of the Local Government Ombudsman's office at York, said: "There has been maladministration. The Council has conceded parents had been placed in some difficulty over a period of years.

"They have responded positively - Bradford is an authority we feel we can do business with. We would like to give them full credit for the offer to settle the complaint."

Explaining the background to the dispute, he said: "We received a number of complaints that in 1999, when parents were invited to express a preference for a school, they were encouraged to select Parkside School but the consequences of that choice in terms of assistance to travel to school were not brought to their attention.

"At a later stage, the Council withdrew free travel passes without consultation.

"The Council has agreed to reinstate a number of travel passes until the relevant pupils reach the age of 16 and reimburse the parents' costs."

A Bradford Council spokesman said: "We note the ombudsman's judgement in this case and accept its findings."