Campaigners say they have been inundated with requests for help from North Yorkshire families affected by a change in the home-to-school transport policy.
School Transport Action Group (STAG) said the membership of its online group had doubled in recent weeks after North Yorkshire Council notified parents of their eligibility for free school transport from September.
The council agreed in July last year to change its home-to-school transport policy to only provide free transport to a child’s nearest school.
Previously, children were able to get free transport to a school if it was their catchment school, even if it was not their nearest.
The decision has proved controversial with parents and opposition councillors calling for a rethink.
The policy change was confirmed however, with a vote at a council meeting last month.
Since then, the council has notified parents whose application for free transport for their child has been rejected.
STAG said many of those seeking help were unaware that the rule change affected them.
A spokesperson said:
“Since the May 21 vote and decision notices on free transport being sent to parents, over 200 new members have joined our Facebook group seeking help and every day new postcodes are coming to light as being badly impacted by these ill-thought-through transport cuts.
“New hotspots that have emerged since the council email notices have landed include Ryedale and Selby, and villages surrounding Harrogate.
“Even more cases than before have come to light in Whitby, Settle, the upper Dales, the villages in north Richmondshire and along the A59.
“Residents who have found out their councillor voted against bringing catchment back, or didn’t even bother turning up or abstained, are quite rightly asking their councillors, what on earth they were thinking.”
The policy was changed in a bid to reduce the council’s £50m annual expenditure on school transport.
Council chiefs say the new policy is fairer because under the previous system, some families had a choice of more than one catchment school and were still able to benefit from free transport.
The authority has also stressed that parents are still able to choose which school their child attends, although they may have to make their own arrangements for transport or apply for a bus pass at a cost of £818 a year.
The council’s Conservative leadership claimed at last month’s meeting that returning to the catchment system would cause “chaos” with the start of the new school year September only months away.
But STAG claimed that keeping the new policy in place had caused chaos for parents who it said were facing “a scramble for information, a tsunami of appeals and a desperate lottery for paid-for bus passes”.
The spokesperson added:
“Anyone who needs help in understanding what’s happened and what they need to do next can contact us, and if we can assist, we will.”
The campaign group has reminded parents that anyone who was notified they will not be receiving free transport on May 23 has until June 23 to appeal.
A64 CLOSED On Eastbound Malton Bypass Due To Collision
Scarborough Councillors Welcome Football Pitch Repair Backstop
North Yorkshire Council Advances Major Housing Joint Venture for Yorkshire Coast
MENCAP Craft Fair On Today To Raise Money For New Scarborough Centre
Council’s New Transport Head on Plans for Yorkshire Coast and Potholes
Bridlington MP Seeks Urgent Clarification on New Specialist SEND School
Police Seek Witnesses to Kirkbymoorside Collision
Viking-Themed Bar Applies for Licence in Whitby
Eastfield Prepares for Council By-Election
Police Search for Missing Whitby Man
Yellow Heat Health Alert Issued for Yorkshire Coast Amid Rising Temperatures
North Yorkshire Fire Service Makes Improvements
Comments
Add a comment