Council 'sorry' over impact of school bus changes

A review of changes to North Yorkshire Council's home-to-school transport policy, introduced to cut costs, has proposed a number of changes.

Eligible children starting school since September 2025 have only had free travel provided to their nearest school, replacing the old system of catchment areas.

The authority said the policy was "working really well" but acknowledged there were some "anomalies" uncovered by the post-implementation review (PIR).

Assistant Chief Executive of the council, Rachel Joyce, said they accepted some families affected by the changes had "felt like they have had negative experiences" and said they were "sorry about that".

Joyce said the proposed changes could not have happened earlier as the authority "needed to have a full year's data" and carry out the PIR, despite many of the 24 issues raised being "things that people have been asking for, for the last two years".

"What we couldn't do and what we haven't done is take each individual issue and make a decision on that in isolation, as we've gone along."

The proposals include removing some routes on the mapping system used to calculate which was the closest school to a child's address, identified through appeals and complaints data.

Those include Fleet Moss Road, Keld to Kirkby Stephen, Buttertubs Pass, The Stang and Kidstone Pass.

The same applied to unsafe walking routes brought to the council's attention.

She also said the authority plans to speed up the appeals process.

Information about the location of school gates, also used to calculate distances and determine eligibility, is currently being updated, Joyce said.

For some schools outside North Yorkshire where information on gates is not available, the official property location would be used, but "this wasn't clear in the policy" so wording would be updated.

Increasing the notice given to parents if a paid-for bus pass needed to be removed would also be increased from seven days to 30 days.

Joyce also found issues with communications to parents in the first year of the policy, and inconsistencies in the mapping data available to families.

Jo Foster, from the School Transport Action Group, said the council's proposals would add "even more complexity" to "patch up a policy that was never fit for purpose".

"The council has now admitted a catalogue of errors but is making no plans to revisit the families who have been wronged over the last two years."

Foster said the authority was putting parents through "torture" and families wanted the "simple, fair system" which had worked for decades.

She said the council should listen to parents and "finally admit that the only way out of this mess is to bring catchment back".

However, Joyce said returning to catchment areas would result in "inequality" and the previous system introduced in 2019 was not compliant with government guidance.

"In some areas, some families were eligible for free home to school travel to two, three, four or five schools and in other areas of the county, they would only have been eligible for one school, which was their nearest and their catchment school."

Councillor Annabel Wilkinson, executive member for education, learning and skills, insisted that the "juggernaut of a policy" was "working really well".

She said there would always be some "anomalies" which was why they had undertaken the review.

Based on the first full year of data available, the policy was due to save £3.7m by the time children starting school in September 2025 left.

That figure included £0.7m set aside for transitional arrangements and appeals.

"We have to look at every family in North Yorkshire and that's why we've had to make some really difficult decisions," Wilkinson said.

Whilst some of the changes can be implemented by politically independent council officers, many will need approval by executive members when they meet on 18 September.

Others are due to go to a six-week public consultation on 21 September.

If approved, the changes would affect children starting school in September 2028 but would not apply retrospectively to families affected by decisions in previous years.

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