Agenda item

The Cabinet Lead Member for Transportation, Mr. P. C. Osborne CC, has been invited to the meeting for this item.

The Commission considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services, the Director of Environment and Transport and the County Solicitor concerning a commentary of some further options for Home to School Transport which had been put forward by the Liberal Democrat Group and by a member of the Scrutiny Commission at its previous meeting on 26 February. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 8”, is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting the Cabinet Lead Member for Transport, Mr. P. C. Osborne CC.  The Chairman indicated that he had been asked by the Lead Member if he could make an urgent statement to the Commission in relation to the Council’s Home to School Transport Policy. The statement was as follows:

“In light of the concerns raised, I would advise the Commission that I have spoken to the Leader with a view to the Cabinet considering a further round of consultation on a policy which would allow:-

·           Transport to the nearest available school providing education for the appropriate age range transfer;

and/or

·           Transport to the nearest suitable Leicestershire School.

In these circumstances, I think it would be helpful to await the outcome of that further consultation before the Commission responds to the Cabinet.”

With regard to the consultation the Commission was advised that it was the intention to seek the Cabinet’s approval at its meeting on 1 April to conduct a further round of consultation and that any new consultation process would run from April to mid-late June. The Cabinet would then be asked to consider the outcome of this process and take a final decision on the matter at its meeting on 15 July. It was noted that, subject to the Cabinet’s agreement to conduct a further round of consultation, this would necessitate an extra meeting of the Commission to consider the outcome of the consultation and make its views known to the Cabinet.

In response to a question, the County Solicitor stated that, in preparation for the new consultation proposals, officers at the County Council had made contact with officers at Oxfordshire County Council, which had recently agreed to implement a policy to provide free school transport for pupils attending their nearest available school within Oxfordshire.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Lead Member and officers for the statement and information now provided. Members of the Commission were of the view that the report to the Commission setting out a commentary on the options put forward had been superseded by the new information provided by the Cabinet Lead Member and it would not therefore be appropriate or productive to discuss its content.

It was noted that, prior to the Cabinet Lead Member’s announcement, representations had been received and circulated to members of the Commission from an organisation called the “School Transport Policy Group” and The Market Bosworth School (a copy of each is filed with these minutes) and representatives from two schools had requested to speak at meeting. The Chairman felt that it would only be fair to continue to offer those who wished to do so the opportunity to express their views, despite the fact that the Council’s position on a way forward for Home to School Transport had now changed significantly. Accordingly, the Chairman welcomed to the meeting Mr. Stuart Wilson, Co-Principal at The Market Bosworth School and Ms. Helen Tait, Chair of Governors at Fernvale Primary School who had given notice that they wished to address the Commission.

Mr. Wilson made a statement welcoming the new information provided by the Cabinet Lead Member for Transport and requesting that the alternative proposal put forward by The Market Bosworth School be considered as part of any future consultation exercise. Its proposal included the following key elements:

·                A default position that all current transport eligibility areas (TEAs) continue to be frozen as they were currently;

·                Any academy that changed its catchment area (or free school that was built) would not receive any additional transport eligibility other than the current frozen policy (which included a caveat for ‘nearest school’);

·                Where two or more schools changed their age rage within the same TEA (essentially creating overlapping catchment areas), then the ‘nearest school’ principle be used to create new TEAs for individual schools within the old TEA.

Ms. Tait made a statement on the ways in which the proposed policy would have a damaging effect on the long established feeder links and collaborative working arrangements between Fernvale Primary School and other schools in the “Oadby Development Group”. In closing, Ms. Tait welcomed the statement made by the Cabinet Lead Member and the new proposal to consult on a policy which included transport to the nearest suitable school. A copy of Ms. Tait’s full statement is filed with these minutes.

It was proposed by the Chairman, seconded by Mr. Lewis CC and carried:-

“(a)    That the Commission welcomes the statement from the Cabinet Lead Member for Transport, stating his intention to seek the Cabinet’s approval to consider a further round of consultation on a policy which would allow:

- Transport to the nearest available school providing education for the appropriate age range transfer

and/or

- Transport to the nearest suitable Leicestershire School;

(b)       That the Cabinet be urged to agree to consult on the proposals outlined in (a) above and that, subject to that gaining that approval, the Commission receive a further report at the appropriate time setting out the outcome of the further round of consultation.”