School transport budget to be cut

How children are measured to live far enough away from their schools to be eligible for free transport needs to be clarified, according to councillors.

At the Learning and Skills committee on Friday, the revised Home To School Transport Policy was discussed and it is due to go out to consultation later this month if Powys County Council Cabinet agree to it at their meeting tomorrow (Tuesday).

To be eligible for free home to school transport pupils need to live more than two miles away from their primary school and three miles away from a secondary school.

Councillor, Lucy Roberts, said: “I am still not clear about which would necessarily be defined as the nearest catchment school from a home.

“I am concerned about the way that the distances are measured, whether they are as the crow flies or the nearest bus route or or by car, I would like more clarity on that.”

Senior manager corporate fleet and transport, John Forsey, said: “It’s not as the crow flies in a straight line, it’s measured by the nearest route. That could mean following a highway, bridleway or a footpath from the property to the school gate.

“You’re not necessarily looking at the catchment area but where we provide transport to.”

Tweaking the policy is part of a wider tidying up process that comes with the school transformation project.

Head of transformation and communications, Emma Palmer, told the committee that it had already been decided not to change the existing definition of catchment areas until the wider school reorganisation process had taken place.

The committee’s comments will be added to the reports being looked at by cabinet.

PCC spend £10million on school transport annually, and tweaks to the policy could only save £75,000.

This would be done by not paying to take pupils to sixth form or further educational colleges outside Powys. If agreed by cabinet the consultation will start on June 15 and run for six weeks.

A report taking into account of the consultation response would be put in front of the cabinet for a decision to go ahead with the changes in September.

The changes would then come into force a year later in September 2021.

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service