North Yorkshire council chiefs have “not bothered” to fully assess the costs of a controversial school transport policy, it was claimed today.
Opposition leaders had hoped to get clarification around some of the financial details of the change, which is affecting thousands of families across the county, at a key meeting to agree the authority’s 2025/26 budget on Friday.
The new policy means children only get free transport to their nearest school, rather than using the previous catchment system.
The change has raised a range of concerns, including children being bussed out of the county, the financial impact on some schools and the splitting up of friendship groups.
Several councillors asked for more details of the likely costs and savings at Friday’s meeting but were told they would need to wait until next year for a review of the policy for further information.
Conservative councillor, Annabel Wilkinson, executive member for education, learning and skills, said there had been a “long and detailed consultation” which gave councillors the chance to seek clarification ahead of members voting on the change in July last year.
Cllr Wilkinson said the policy had a range of variables including parent preference over admissions, school popularity and school place availability.
She added: “The policy papers presented to the councillors showed a savings range to account for some of these variables and we do expect to make savings in the first few years, and they have been factored into the medium-term financial strategy.
“We have implemented a post-implementation review which we will look at after a year of implementation so the autumn of 2026.”
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Stuart Parsons, who leads the North Yorkshire Independent Group, said councillors had voted on the policy making savings of up to £4.2m but this had now dropped to less than £3m, with no understanding of what extra costs the policy change would mean.
“All these routes across the Pennines which are currently priority two are going to need to be priority one if children are using them to go to school.
“But nobody has bothered to find out how much more that is going to cost.”
Cllr Parsons added: “They failed to answer questions because they had no answers, or they knew the answers they had would give reasons for the campaigners to contest this decision even stronger.
Liberal Democrat councillor, Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, said that by time of the review, parents will already have been forced to make unwanted changes.
“There are a lot of assumptions behind the Tories’ predicted savings without any provision for the additional costs the policy will create.
“And the life of schools, pupils and parents will be disrupted without any guarantee that this scheme will save any money.”
More than a dozen councillors walked out of the council chamber towards the end of Friday’s meeting in protest at a decision by the executive to propose an amendment to the council’s five-year plan without giving prior notice.
It came after a series of bad-tempered exchanges between councillors, with the executive committee being accused of making personal attacks on members and claims from opposition councillors that Tory councillors had been instructed how to vote ahead of the meeting.
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