'Nearest school' transport cost changes rejected

Plans which would have seen children in Central Bedfordshire only getting free bus travel to their nearest school have been rejected by councillors.

The proposals had previously been criticised over concerns about the impact on some schools because of a reduction in pupil numbers.

They had also been recommended for rejection by the authority's scrutiny committee in July, but were discussed again by its executive on Tuesday before being vetoed.

However Councillor Steve Owen, Executive Member for Children's Services warned: "We won't be able to bury this issue and will have to come back to this again next year."

At the moment, pupils in Central Bedfordshire are entitled to free travel to their catchment school, even though revised Department for Education guidance, published in July 2024, recommended it should only be to their nearest school.

The authority had until 19 September to make changes to its school transport policy and did agree to introduce independent travel training and post-16 concessionary travel where spare seats were available.

It also agreed a low-income post-16 financial contribution and post-16 Special Educational Needs (SEN) college transport for the start and end of the day.

However, the majority of its executive rejected proposals to change free transport funding to a pupil's nearest school.

Independent council leader Adam Zerny said he felt it was right this option was discussed but also that it was the right decision to reject it at this stage.

He told the BBC: "I think we made the right decision which was to recognise the drawbacks of such a decision relating to the fact there weren't clear savings that we could make."

He added that he "was not convinced that parents had been given a sufficient indication of exactly what the implications for them were".

The Pyramid Schools Trust had criticised the proposals, with concerns raised over the harm to children's education and wellbeing, the huge financial impact on parents and a projected loss of about £2m worth of funding per annum at its Arnold Academy, Parkfields Middle and Harlington Upper Schools.

Chief executive Steve Kelly said: "There was an overwhelming response from parents that they wanted to reject this."

He said he felt the proposals "weren't even half-baked and that they didn't even have the ingredients for the cake".

Mr Kelly said he was "frustrated that so much time was spent on this when there are far more important issues we should be discussing".

Councillor Steve Owen, who was only appointed as member for Children's Services last month, told the meeting he would "talk with officers again after this and see if we can do better next time."

However Mr Kelly said, if these proposals were brought forward again next year, he "would still have concerns and would continue to lobby elected members and council officers to work with them to put this right."

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