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14
Jul
Fresh call for school transport rethink amid claim new policy could cost £5 million a year
Campaigners and opposition councillors will make a fresh bid to reverse changes to North Yorkshire Council’s home-to-school transport policy amid claims the rule changes could ultimately cost taxpayers £5m more a year.
A motion will be put to the full council on Wednesday calling on councillors to revert the policy back to providing free transport to a child’s catchment school.
The authority controversially changed the rules in 2024 to only allow free transport to a child’s nearest school, which critics say has caused problems for parents and schools across the county, particularly in rural areas.
The motion has been proposed by Liberal Democrat councillors with the support of other parties.
It highlights research by campaigners from the School Transport Action Group, whose analysis suggests the policy change will not achieve the £3m in savings claimed by the authority — and could actually cost the council money.
The motion claims the council’s projected savings are based on an “incomplete financial model”.
It adds:
Once the additional costs of delivering the policy are considered, the projected savings disappear.
Independent modelling reveals that once fragmentation of routes and additional admin costs are factored in, even after the seven-year transition period ‘nearest only’ policy costs eight to ten per cent more to run than ‘nearest or catchment’.
According to the STAG analysis, this equates to an extra £4m to £5m a year to run home-to-school transport.
Mapping data amended
The motion is being proposed amid further criticisms of how the policy has been implemented.
The council has admitted that mapping data for 28 schools was accidentally amended within live systems, affecting distance calculations used to determine eligibility for free transport.
The council has confirmed that Tadcaster Grammar School and Scalby School, in Scarborough, are among the affected schools, while STAG also believes the error may have consequences for parents wanting transport to Richmond School.
Campaigners have written to senior councillors and officers requesting a list of the schools in volved and confirmation that recent transport decisions and appeals have been reviewed in light of the admission.
A STAG spokesperson said:
How much longer will the council continue pouring time and public money into defending a policy that families warned from the outset was overly complicated, prone to error and ill-suited to a rural county?
At some point someone simply needs to press the common-sense button, restore catchment-based transport and let children get to their local schools in the way North Yorkshire families have done for decades.
In response, North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for children’s partnerships and sufficiency, Jo Heaney, said “early indications” were that the savings anticipated by the authority would be achieved.
She added:
Our previous home to school transport policy was over and above what was required by the Department for Education, and the one revised in 2024 is in line with the national legislation that is followed by many other councils nationally.
Our costs for this service now exceed £52m per year – £1m every week – making it one of the top three areas of the council’s spending.
We have a duty to provide transport to eligible children, and we want to ensure this is in a safe, efficient, responsible and cost-effective way.
The policy ensures we transport eligible children to their nearest schools. However, parents and carers still have a choice as to where they send their children to school.
We offer extra travel support for children from low-income families through our extended rights arrangements.
The officer said the council was carrying out a post implementation review (PIR), which was looking at how the policy had been working in practice.
“Our findings and any recommendations will be published in the autumn,” she added.
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