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03
Jul
North Yorkshire school transport protests spread to Glastonbury Festival
Protests over changes to home-to-school transport policy in North Yorkshire spread to Glastonbury Festival last weekend.
Ciel, who is 11-years-old, held up a placard containing the message ‘North Yorks Council Stole My Bus Pass!’ in front of the crowd watching performances on the West Holts stage.
The youngster, from Bilbrough, near York, is one of hundreds of children affected by the new rules, which mean free transport will only be offered to a child’s nearest school.
The previous policy was aligned with the admissions system with free transport available if you attended your catchment school.
Local parents in the Harrogate district have spoken to the Stray Ferret previously over how the changes will affect them.
Ciel attended the Somerset festival with her parents Kathy and Eric Walker.
Kathy got in touch with the School Transport Action Group (STAG) after finding out in May that her daughter would not be eligible for free transport to her catchment school, Tadcaster Grammar School.
Instead, she would need to attend a school in York to be eligible for a bus pass because this school is around 170 metres nearer.
Kathy said it came as a shock to be advised by the council that Ciel would not get free transport.
She added:
This was the first we heard about it.
Because Ciel goes to a primary school in York we didn’t get told and Tadcaster Grammar has admitted they never passed it on.
On the protest at Glastonbury, which took place during a set by Scottish multi-instrumentalist corto.alto, who is managed by her husband, Kathy said:
It was a good opportunity to get a bit of exposure for our campaign.
It was also a bit of fun because trying to fight this policy can be a real slog and you spend a lot of time sending emails etc.
It got a lot of funny looks and laughs.
The protest took place on the same stage as controversial performances by Kneecap and Bob Vylan, which are the subject of a police investigation following comments and chanting on the war in Gaza.
North Yorkshire Council has repeatedly defended the policy change.
It told parents at a recent council meeting that the home-to-school policy was aligned with statutory guidance issued by the Department for Education, which requires authorities to provide transport to a child’s nearest school.
The statement added that the policy could result in savings of up to £4.2m by the end of the implementation period at a time when school transport spending had increased to £50m a year.
Council leaders say they will review the policy next summer.
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