North Yorkshire Council has been accused of creating an “illusion of listening” after claiming the public has backed changes to its controversial school transport policy.
The authority says a six-week consultation involving 588 people showed strong support for proposed amendments to the policy, which has faced sustained criticism from rural families since its introduction in September 2024.
However, campaigners and opposition councillors say the changes fail to address fundamental problems with the system, which removed automatic free transport eligibility to catchment schools in favour of the nearest suitable school with available places.
The School Transport Action Group (STAG) has accused the council of avoiding the question of whether the previous catchment arrangements should be restored.
In a separate survey conducted by the group, 87.4 per cent of 111 respondents supported bringing back free transport to either a child’s nearest school or their catchment school.
A further 92.8 per cent said it was unfair that families affected by mapping errors and policy flaws had not been offered retrospective reassessments or remedies.
The findings contrast with the council’s announcement that its proposed changes had received widespread public backing.
According to the authority, 85 per cent of consultation respondents supported improvements to mapping data, while almost 80 per cent backed clearer guidance on school entrances and eligibility.
More than 86 per cent supported discretionary arrangements where schools share transport drop-off points, while almost 84 per cent backed removing five remote roads from the mapping system.
Executive member for education, Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, said: “When the policy changed, we promised to review how it was working in practice and to listen to the experiences of families.
“That is exactly what we have done, and I am pleased to see the positive responses from people who took part in the consultation.”
However, STAG said the consultation had been deliberately restricted to relatively minor changes rather than allowing families to express their views on the policy as a whole.
A spokesperson said: “They are deluded if they think these minor changes are going to sort out school transport. They won’t.
“A handful of minor tweaks and a loaded consultation won’t make this go away.
“You cannot fix a fundamentally flawed policy with a few tweaks. This is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic while rural families are left picking up the pieces.”
The group also questioned the council’s projected financial savings, claiming more taxis were travelling across the county as children attended different schools.
Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Murday welcomed the adoption of two of three immediate changes he had proposed but said they did not go far enough.
He said: “Families who have been wronged by this policy must not simply be left to pick up the pieces. They deserve to have their cases properly reconsidered and to be treated fairly.
“The underlying problems with this policy, which have been evident from day one, remain unresolved.
“I believe the council missed an important opportunity by failing to properly consider a return to the previous catchment arrangements. That system worked and, in my view, was infinitely fairer.”
Cllr Murday said the battle would continue until council leaders acknowledged the policy’s failings.
The council says its school transport service costs more than £54m annually and supports around 11,000 pupils.
The policy was changed to limit free school transport to a child’s nearest school, rather than a system based on the catchment system, in a bid to reduce the school transport bill.
Councillors will consider the proposed amendments, alongside the question of restoring catchment-based eligibility, at a full council meeting on Wednesday, November 18.
Any approved changes would not take effect before September 2027 and would apply to children starting Reception and Year 7 in September 2028.
Be the first to comment