Consultation launches on school transport changes

A consultation on a shake-up of school transport in North Yorkshire which will mean an end to door-to-door pick-ups has been launched.

North Yorkshire County Council is proposing a raft of changes to reduce the £24.7m a year it spends on school transport.

At present, children lving in rural areas are often collected from their front door or farm.

But the county council wants to instead use “collection points” where pupils can be picked up and dropped off.

The council says the collection points would be “safe areas pupils could walk to, such as existing bus stops”.

Door-to-door transport will be available only to children with medical or special educational needs.

Other proposed changes include free school transport only being provided to and from the pupils’ main home address and limiting free transport to a pupils’ catchment or nearest school.

A £30 fee for replacement school transport bus passes would also be introduced. Passes are currently replaced for free.

Cllr Patrick Mulligan, North Yorkshire’s executive member for education and skills, said: “As an authority, a lot of the home to school transport services we offer are above the statutory minimum, but we need to ensure what we offer is fair and consistent to everyone.

“We also recognise we’re a rural county without the public transport links some other areas have and recognise the difficulties this presents across North Yorkshire.

“We want to protect transport from home to school for those who need it the most and for those who are entitled to it.”

The proposed changes would not affect existing arrangements for pupils, until they change schools, turn eight or require a reassessment due to a change of address.

The county-wide consultation with parents, students, school representatives and other members of the public will run until June 16.

People can take part in the survey online, at; https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/h2stransportconsult or attend a public consultation on the following dates: