North Yorkshire Council school transport policy is 'killing Dales', parents say
North Yorkshire Council has been told it is “killing the Dales” and driving out young families with its home-to-school transport policy.
Parents in Oughtershaw, in Upper Wharfedale, have been told the council will only pay for transport to Hawes Primary School, in Wensleydale, and not the school in Kettlewell, where children from the hamlet have attended for more than 100 years.
The change is due to a new council policy, which means free transport is only provided to a child’s nearest suitable school.
The council says this is required to cut back on costs, and puts it into line with other local authorities around the country.
However, furious parents have been protesting this as it has meant children going on dangerous, ungritted roads over the tops of the Dales or forsaking their free buses to school.
David and Helen Thomas are one of several families who have lost appeals against the decision by the council, despite arguing that the school route to Hawes over Fleet Moss is often impassable during the winter due to snow and ice and completely unsuitable for use by school transport.
The couple say sending their children, Willow, seven and five-year-old Ash, in a taxi - provided by the council - over the moors to Hawes is too dangerous in winter.
Fleet Moss is the highest paved road in North Yorkshire, and was used in the Tour de France due to the difficulty of its terrain and its steep gradients.
With Storm Goretti this week, snow and ice would have made it impossible for the youngsters to make the journey to Hawes, but they were still able to attend Kettlewell as the road had been gritted.
Mr Thomas said this has vindicated them, while Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon said the weather has shown how “reckless and short-sighted” the policy is.
The parents’ only options are to pay more than £800 per child a year for seats on the school bus — which picks up other youngsters in Oughtershaw at the end of their drive and can be withdrawn at the last minute — or take their children to school themselves tailgating the bus the whole way.
The couple moved to the Dales five years ago and run a farm diversification scheme with Mr Thomas’ parents.
Mr Thomas said that if the controversial policy had been in place then, they would not have moved to the area.
“It’s been our main stress over the last year,” the 43-year-old told The Yorkshire Post.
“One of the main reasons we moved here was because we thought we qualified for home-to-school transport.
“We thought this would be an enormous help in so many ways - it connects us to our community.
“Our whole life is down valley - we just don’t go into Wensleydale because of the geography.”
Mr Thomas makes the point that the policy appears to go against the Yorkshire Dales Management Plan, which has a big push to attract young families.
The area has seen a number of schools close in recent years, making it tougher for people to live in the Upper Dales with young children.
“It will genuinely be the death of these communities and that’s not hyperbole,” he said.
“I’ve seen parents in tears about this - it’s absolutely brutal because it’s disproportionately impactful on the most remote communities and the most rural children.
“They are the kids that need the most support to get to school.”
The couple do not object in general to the policy, but believe the council should be fairer to families in the Upper Dales with the appeals process.
The Thomases tried to appeal against their removal of transport to Kettlewell Primary School, however they were told that they did not count as exceptional circumstances.
They were one of hundreds of families that have looked to bring appeals, disputing losing their child’s school transport provision.
Of the 84 that reached the second stage of the process in the second half of 2025, just 11 were successful.
Campaigners, who put in freedom of information requests (FoIs) to other councils to compare, said this was the second lowest success rate out of the 17 they surveyed.
North Yorkshire - now on 13 per cent of successful appeals - was behind only Middlesbrough on 8 per cent.
In nearby York, 54 per cent of appeals are successful, while in Wakefield 46 per cent of parents succeed.
The School Transport Action Group, which was formed to fight the rule change, said the issues faced by the Thomas family and others in Oughetershaw highlighted the “damage” the policy was causing.
A spokesperson added: “It’s soul-destroying to hear of yet another example of the harm this dangerous policy is doing to young families, to rural communities and to local schools.”
North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for education and inclusion, Amanda Fielding, said: “Our home to school travel policy ensures fairness and consistency for families across the county and is in line with national legislation set out by the Government.
“Rising costs of delivering our home to school transport duties have now exceeded £52m making it one of the top three areas of the council’s spending. This revised policy supports longer term sustainability.”