Councillor accused of putting party before parents in home-to-school transport row

Campaigners also claim Conservative councillor Angus Thompson, who represents the North Richmondshire division, made “scandalous” and “false and misleading claims” to support his decision to vote with Tory colleagues.

But Coun Thompson has defended his actions to help defeat a motion calling for the new policy, which only provides free school transport to a child’s nearest school, to be abandoned.

The councillor said all the controversial issue surrounding school transport had been “hijacked for political purposes” by opposition parties at North Yorkshire Council.

The row follows a meeting last month where members of the authority voted to reject a motion put forward by opposition councillors to return to a home-to-school transport system based on school catchment areas.

The vote came after months of criticism of the policy change, which parents and opposition councillors claim has created an unfair and confusing system, and left parents facing large bills for transport to catchment schools which are not their nearest.

Critics of the scheme also claimed the policy, which was introduced in a bid to cut the £50m school transport costs, would not deliver the claimed savings of more than £3m a year by the time it is fully implemented in 2032.

Coun Thompson had publicly criticised the policy change and told local residents he would “not support the change” when it came to the vote.

But after voting against the motion, the councillor said in correspondence with local parish councils, that two issues were brought to his attention days before the key meeting which he said he “hadn’t perhaps fully appreciated the implications of”.

He said changing the policy, which is due to take effect in September, would cause “absolute chaos” because 11,000 parents had made their choice of school based on the new policy.

The councillor added that he had not fully appreciated the impact of Richmond School’s policy of “poaching pupils” from areas like Northallerton, Bedale, Catterick and Leyburn.

Coun Thompson also suggested the new policy would lead to savings of more than £3m in the coming year.

All these claims have been refuted by the campaign group, School Transport Action Group (Stag), formed by parents to fight the policy change, which said the suggestion that 11,000 families would be affected by a return to the old policy was “simply false”.

It added that even council chiefs accepted the new policy may only deliver saving of around £350,000 in its first year.

In a response to the councillor, the group said: “You didn’t just vote against the motion – you spoke against it and persuaded others to toe the party line.

“This has been widely seen as a betrayal, particularly given that every village in your division, bar one, is directly affected.

“Your recent report explaining your decision only compounds the frustration. It contains numerous false and misleading claims.

“Whether these stem from misunderstandings or misinformation, they must be corrected so your constituents, and the wider public, have a clear understanding of what was really at stake.”

The group claims that Coun Thompson put party before parents by choosing to vote against the motion, adding that the “poaching” accusation levelled at Richmond School was “scandalous”.

In response to the criticism from Stag, Coun Thompson said the information provided in his memo were provided by North Yorkshire Council officers.

He later clarified to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he should have said the new policy would lead to expected savings of around £3m over the next three years, not a single year.

The councillor said he would be issuing a new memo correcting the figures previously stated.

He added: “What Stag should remember is that I am basically on their side, but as I said in the report their timing is all wrong.

“I can’t help thinking that the entire issue has been hijacked for political purposes.”

Coun Thompson said he had received an invitation from the chair of governors at Richmond School to meet with them and said he wanted to work with the school.