North Yorkshire councillors have voted to keep in place a controversial home-to-school transport policy after hearing a return to the old system would cause "chaos" for the authority.
Despite months of criticism from parents and campaigners, members of the authority voted by 45 votes to 35 against a motion to revert to using ‘catchment’ to decide eligibility for free school transport.
The vote at County Hall, in Northallerton, means North Yorkshire Council will press ahead with the new policy of only offering free transport to a child’s nearest school.
The vote was called by opposition councillors who wanted the authority to cancel the policy change previously agreed in July last year.
Campaigners in the public gallery held up banners with the words ‘shame on you’ after the outcome of the vote was announced.
Councillors had earlier arrived to a protest outside the council offices from around 100 people who backed the return to the previous system based on catchment.
But Conservative executive member, Councillor Simon Myers, told the meeting 11,000 children had already made a choice on school for September based on the new policy.
He said a return to the previous criteria would throw families “into chaos”, adding:
“It throws the council into chaos, it makes the job of our officers unworkable and it opens the council up to financial and legal consequences.
“It’s not about the policy, it’s about the efficient administration of this council for the benefits of all of its residents.
“For us to make changes to a policy that was recently enacted, that people have made choices on, is simply irresponsible.”
Deputy leader Gareth Dadd described some of the claims made by critics of the new policy as “outlandish”.
He added:
“There’s a line in a song ‘we want it all and we want it now’. Well put simply we can’t have it all and we cant have it now.”
Responding to a claim from an opposition councillor that the Conservative group were returning to “Mrs May’s nasty party” by pushing through the policy, he said:
“Do you think I stand here licking my lips trying to execute this policy that we decided last July that does, we accept, affect parents and children?
“No I don’t, but we do it for one very simple reason, we set out as an administration to protect services to our most vulnerable within this county.”
Cllr Dadd later clarified that he was talking about the Liberal Democrat group, which brought the motion, when he urged councillors not to “pander to that populist lot” while appearing to gesture to the public gallery.
Council bosses have argued that the policy change was needed to reduce annual costs of more than £50m for home-to-school transport.
They said the move to provide the statutory minimum level of service would deliver savings of up to £4.2m.
But critics have claimed the new system may actually cost money to implement, and would be damaging to pupils, schools and rural communities.
Labour councillor, Neil Swannick, said “unintended consequences” of the policy had emerged since councillors gave it the go-ahead.
He added:
“The residents and families are very well aware of the flaws that we should have been aware of in July last year.”
Independent councillor Stuart Parsons claimed the new policy could lead to a legal challenge because of its impact on residents of North Yorkshire’s two national parks.
Campaign group School Action Transport Group (STAG) was formed to fight the policy change.
After the vote, parent and group spokesperson, Charlotte Fowler, said:
“Shame on all those councillors who have let down North Yorkshire’s children today.
“They had a chance to put things right and they blew it. By choosing to keep a broken system in place the council has left children isolated, parents burdened, and schools uncertain about their future.”
Another parent who attended the meeting, Charlotte Poran, from Kirk Hammerton, was left in tears by the outcome of the vote.
Her daughter has a place at Boroughbridge School which is their catchment school but not their nearest school, meaning she will now have to pay around £800 a year for the child to attend the same school as her son.
She said:
“I’m just sad that I’ve got to go and tell my daughter that we didn’t get them change their minds.”
Speaking after the meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Bryn Griffiths, who brought the motion to change the policy, said it was “a great pity” that the Conservative and Independent group voted against the amendment.
He added:
“They have left parents and children facing the prospect of less choice and in some cases financial hardship if they choose to place their child in their school of choice.
“In my opinion there are both social and financial consequences to the current policy, which is likely to result in decreased budgets for North Yorkshire schools and colleges, with restrictions on the educational offering for our children.”
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