Council set to reject bus pass plea

The council last year received a petition signed by 74 people asking it to change the policy to allow children outside a three mile radius from Ilkley Grammar School, but still within the oversubscribed school's priority area one, to be awarded free bus passes.

But the council's executive will be advised to make no change to the current discretionary policy when it meets on Tuesday.

A report to be considered by the executive reveals that during 2008 Education Bradford declined 361 applications for transport on the basis that they were not the nearest suitable qualifying school.

It adds: "On the assumption that each provision costs 444, the price of a bus pass, if the policy were changed this would be an additional cost of 160,284, for these applications alone. There would particularly be an unquantifiable additional number of those who would apply should the policy be amended."

The report also says that if the policy is changed in favour of the petitioners, there would be "considerable additional costs in an ever worsening financial environment with the cost of dedicated transport for children with special educational needs being much higher and also a likely increase in applications for free transport".

Furthermore, the report reveals that bus services to many schools are already full to capacity and says that "a large increase in service users would mean extra procurement of bus services at a cost to the local authority of 35,000 per bus or the cost of a bus pass for each user on a service bus".

Bradford Council has a statutory duty to provide home to school transport for eligible children up to the age of 16.

In addition to its statutory duty the council also provides discretionary transport provision for children up to the age of 16 and for students over 16 years of age.

A child will be eligible for free school transport if they attend a school which is beyond the statutory walking distance from their home, if the authority has not made any suitable arrangements for that child to attend a school nearer to their home.

The statutory walking distance for a child aged eight and over is three miles irrespective of the local authority district.

Under the council's school transport policy, which is reviewed on a yearly basis, children who live more than the statutory walking distance from their nearest suitable qualifying school will qualify for free transport.

When considering eligibility for transport a school is considered "suitable" if it has places available at the time school places are allocated.

According to the report, "the nearest suitable qualifying school to the principal petitioner was Guiseley School at a distance of 2.719 miles" – which is within the statutory walking distance although not in the Bradford district.

The report says that "the existence or otherwise of a priority area does not of itself determine entitlement to assistance with school travel, which is based upon the nearest suitable qualifying school".

The council has discretionary power to make travel arrangements to facilitate attendance for any child who is not eligible for free travel under statutory provisions.

In December 2008, the council's executive approved changes to the discretionary part of the policy to extend the provision of free transport for children with special educational needs and pupils attending Pupil Referral Units and Primary Behaviour Units.