School transport changes will not lead to school closures, say North Yorkshire Council chiefs

Council chiefs have ruled out any changes to the policy in the immediate future despite widespread criticism, saying the authority needs to reduce the £50m currently spent on taking children to and from school every year.

New rules mean the council will only pay to transport a child to its nearest school, rather than using the previous catchment system.

As well as proving unpopular with affected parents, campaigners fear the change will reduce pupil numbers at some schools, meaning jobs will be lost and smaller schools could even be forced to close.

Campaigners have submitted a Freedom of Information request to obtain a confidential study on the policy’s impact on schools, and have now complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office after the authority failed to reply within the specified time limit.

But speaking about the council’s financial situation yesterday to the local democracy reporting service, senior officers said there was no evidence the policy would leave any of the county’s schools in an unsustainable financial position.

Council bosses admitted they could understand parents’ anger over the change, but were adamant it could deliver savings of up to £3m a year.

Chief executive Richard Flinton said: “It’s not something that the council would have chosen to do in better times, but it’s a reflection of the financial pressures we’re under.”

Council leader Carl Les said he could “absolutely” understand the unhappiness over the change.

He added: “If I was a parent I would be in a similar position to them.”

The senior councillor said the policy would be reviewed next year, but stressed that the key factor would be savings rather than the impact on schools and parents.

“The police was implemented for a financial reason and we will look to see if it has achieved that,” he added.

Councillors will meet next week to agree a 4.99 per cent rise in council tax which council chiefs say is needed to tackle a drop in income and an increase in demand for services.

The council is still reeling from the loss of a £14.3m rural services delivery grant which was withdrawn by the government in November.

Senior officers said the loss of the funding, which was given to rural councils due to the extra costs involved in providing services in sparsely populated areas, was completely unexpected.

Councillor Carl Les said the end of the grant “felt like payback time” from the Labour government after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted as saying he diverted public money from “deprived urban areas”.

Coun Les added: “You do just wonder if there’s some spad (special advisor) somewhere telling the government to ‘hit farmers, pensioners and Conservative rural councillors because they don’t vote for us’.”

Council bosses said that even with the above inflation rise in council tax, the authority will need to meet a £5m shortfall from its reserves — and could face a £34m deficit by 2028.

The situation would be far worse without savings delivered by the local government reorganisation which took place in North Yorkshire in 2023, they added.

North Yorkshire councillors will meet on Friday, February 14 to agree on the budget for the next financial year.