Council leaders highlight £48m black hole amid school transport fury

North Yorkshire Council’s leaders have been accused of “breaking up communities” after pursuing a move to restrict free home-to-school transport to those attending the nearest school.

Headteachers, governors, parents and community leaders lined up at County Hall in Northallerton to urge executive councillors to drop the proposal to reduce provision to the legal requirement, which could save the council £3 million.

The proposal follows school transport becoming the third-largest expenditure for the authority at £51 million a year – behind adult social care and waste management – more than doubling since 2018/19.

In a highly unusual move, the Conservative-run authority’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, opened the meeting with a short speech to underline the council’s projected £48 million annual shortfall over the next four years.

He said while the Labour government had won the election on a platform of change, it remained unlikely that the council’s financial “context” would change significantly, and it was probable the schools’ Rural Support Grant would be removed.

Cllr Les said: 

Children would 'represent a financial blow'

However, Jo Colledge, Ingleton Primary School’s headteacher, said families living in Craven villages were living in fear about the changes, which would be phased in over seven years.

Gareth Whitaker, headteacher of Settle College, said being forced to choose a school based on transport costs, rather than educational preferences, undermined the principle of educational freedom.

Every child who travelled to their nearest school in Cumbria instead of Settle College would represent a financial blow, Mr Whitaker added.

He said the authority’s proposals had the potential to segregate education by income, rather than by choice or merit, and simply shifted the financial burden onto families.

Mr Whitaker added: 

Speaking on behalf of families in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, Ian Dawson, a governor at Richmond School, said the proposals would mean children travelling over perilous, high routes in winter, and the loss of 20 students, represented a £120,000 funding cut, equal to the salary of four teaching staff.

The meeting was told the school would see a substantial cut in the breadth of curriculum, end school-based post-16 education in the area, undermine the retention of teachers and be a further reason for families to leave Dales villages.

'Extremely unpalatable'

However, the meeting heard leading members say they took comfort in the fact the council was using its discretionary powers to extend the eligibility for travel assistance for secondary age pupils from low-income families to attend one of their three nearest suitable schools.

This is provided it was more than two miles but not more than 12 miles from their home.

They emphasised alternative ways of saving money on the few non-statutory services the council runs would be “extremely unpalatable” for families and that the authority had a duty to have a balanced budget.

Responding to the safety concerns, the authority’s executive member for education, cllr Annabel Wilkinson, said all routes used to take pupils to school would all be risk assessed.

Executive member Michael Harrison, who represents Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate, said while he recognised the litany of concerns that had been raised, the implications for the council losing control of its financial future would be enormous for any discretionary spend the authority had.

Ahead of the executive unanimously approving the proposal for consideration by a full meeting of the authority later this month, he said: