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09
Mar
Council called on to hold urgent meeting to solve school transport 'crisis'
North Yorkshire Council has received a formal request for an urgent meeting to “resolve the crisis” surrounding the controversial school transport changes.
Liberal Democrats on the authority have asked the chair of the authority to authorise an extraordinary meeting amid warnings the council could face a legal challenge over the policy.
Changes voted through last year mean the authority will only pay for school transport to a child’s nearest school, rather than using the previous catchment system.
Catchment is still used for school admissions however and critics say the two systems do not work together.
Parents across the county have hit out at the policy which means children attending different schools to their siblings or friend groups, attending schools outside of the county or potentially having to travel across remote moorland routes to school.
Families have been told by council officials if they still want to send their child to their catchment school which is not their nearest, they will need to pay for a bus pass.
Cllr Bryn Griffiths, leader of the Liberal Democrats group on the Tory-run council, said he had the backing of other opposition parties in making the request to the chair, Cllr Roberta Swiers.
He added:
I have called for this meeting to resolve the crisis that the home-to-school transport policy, and the misleading guidance about it, has created.
Council was assured that the policy would deliver significant savings but it hasn’t — it’s time for an honest conversation.
This cannot wait until May’s full council meeting, there is too much at stake.
He added:
The executive must be aware that there is a risk of a legal challenge to their decision-making and they shouldn’t make the situation any worse by delaying this.
A spokesperson for the School Transport Action Group (STAG), a community group which been campaigning for a policy rethink, welcomed the call for a meeting to discuss the issue.
They said:
The evidence of the harm and distress that these school transport cuts are having is now crystal clear.
We are pleased that North Yorkshire Council is going to have the opportunity to put this right. We call on all councillors to put people before party and work together to end this mess. Let’s take this chance to bring catchment back.
Cllr Andy Brown, from the Green Party, said the policy made parents choose between financial hardship or the best interests of their children.
He said:
That is why we Greens are putting political differences aside and trying to work together with other parties to challenge and reverse this policy.
We believe it was not properly thought through, nor the implications understood at the time of the council vote.
I hope that the leadership will have the grace and compassion to revisit the decision.
Cllr Swiers told the local democracy reporting service she was “not surprised” she had been asked to agree to an extraordinary meeting on the issue, adding that she aimed to make a decision by the end of the week.
The council introduced the change in a bid to make savings from its home-to-school transport budget which it said had doubled since 2018/19.
The authority has committed to reviewing the change in the summer of 2026.
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