Councillors reject calls to review free school transport cuts for hundreds of pupils

Nicholas Thomas, Local Democracy Reporter 

Councillors have knocked back calls to review cuts to school transport after secondary school pupils had free transport axed.

Hundreds of secondary school pupils in Caerphilly had their free transport cut over the summer after independent assessors declared their walking routes to be safe.

Plaid Cymru councillor Teresa Parry urged colleagues to support a review amid concerns over the “robustness, consistency and transparency” of those assessments.

But members of the council’s controlling Labour group said the matter had already been through the decision-making process, and argued that even with the cuts Caerphilly would have a more “generous” school transport policy than most other councils.

The local authority generally provides school transport for secondary-aged pupils who live more than two miles from their schools – whereas the Welsh minimum standards include a higher, three-mile threshold.

A decision taken earlier this year, as part of the budget-setting process, ultimately led to free transport being removed along nine routes declared safe, for pupils who live within two miles of their secondary schools.

Cllr Parry’s motion claimed the assessments behind that decision were “undertaken during limited periods and may not fully reflect the conditions experienced by pupils throughout the school year – including periods of poor weather, reduced daylight, increased traffic and other seasonal factors”.

Another Plaid councillor, Steve Skivens, told a cross-party scrutiny committee the rules on minimum travel distances were decades old and had been unpopular since their inception.

He asked colleagues to consider whether the council had “addressed the impacts” of axing the nine routes, which he said would mean children walking “beside and crossing busy and fast” roads.

Criticised review

Labour councillor Colin Gordon criticised the calls for a review because Caerphilly has “by far the best home-to-school transport policy in the whole of Wales”.

He said the matter had already been settled during the budget process, and suggested some councillors may not have read the lengthy reports at the time.

Cllr Gordon also told the meeting several Plaid-controlled councils in Wales only offered free transport in line with the Welsh Government’s three-mile minimum standards.

He added he had “fought hard” against a previous Caerphilly Council plan to reduce the borough’s own school transport service to three miles for secondary-aged pupils.

Cllr Marina Chacon-Dawson – also Labour – said Caerphilly was one of the few councils in Britain to offer a two-mile threshold for older pupils, adding she believed it was “quite generous”.

The committee voted 10-6, with one abstention, to reject Cllr Parry’s call for a review.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.