Government to push ahead with school bus charging
The Government is to push ahead with proposed reforms to the school transport arrangements that could see better-off parents charged for their children’s bus journeys to school
Currently, free transport must be provided for pupils who live beyond a certain distance from the school, two miles for the under eights and three miles for all others. Under the Government’s plans, Local Education Authorities (LEAs) could introduce a charge for transport, though some children, notably those entitled to free school meals, will still be entitled to free transport.
The plans have already met with strong opposition from the Conservative Party who have promised to fight them “tooth and nail”.
However, the Government is keen to emphasise that the Bill has a number of other provisions designed to provide pupils with “greener, safer and healthier ways to travel to school”.
In particular, the Bill is aimed to reduce the number of pupils coming in to school by car.
The decision to push ahead with the draft School Transport Bill, which was published for consultation this spring, comes after a report from the Education and Skills Select Committee in July. The committee backed the intention to introduce new legislation, but was concerned that the objectives of the Bill were not entirely clear, the funding available seems “miserly” and that monitoring of the pilot schemes was not sufficient.
On the likely key controversy of charging the committee raised no fundamental objections, arguing that “an exemption based on ability to pay is generally speaking a fairer charging policy than one based on an arbitrary cut-off distance”. But, they called for a more sophisticated method of measuring eligibility for free transport.
The Government was also urged to monitor closely the effects of charging on car use.
In the Government’s response to the committee, Schools Minister Stephen Twigg said that the Bill will be introduced as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
Key measures include the introduction of “walking buses” – whereby volunteers escort children to school -, more cycle routes and storage, extra buses for after school activities, and the staggering of school starting times to reduce congestion.
Mr Twigg said that he accepted the recommendation of more start up money, and announced funding of up to £200,000 to kick-start each scheme.
Mr Twigg said: “Twice as many children are driven to school now in comparison with 20 years ago – around 40 per cent of primary pupils and 20 per cent of secondary pupils. Most of these journeys are less than two miles, meaning decreasing numbers of children walking or cycling with serious health implications in terms of lack of daily exercise and the growing proportion of children who are overweight.
“That is why we want to encourage local education authorities to make walking, cycling and bus travel safe, green, healthy options for more schools and their pupils.
“The present system is unfair because it is based on the distance pupils live from school and not parents’ ability to pay. There is no agenda to remove free travel from any particular group, it would be entirely at a local education authority’s discretion, and there would be safeguards to ensure that those on low incomes are not charged.
“But the Government currently spends half a billion pounds each year providing free transport for only 10 per cent of all pupils, we need to ensure that high quality, low cost school transport is available to all.”
Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins, however, was not impressed. He said: “The Government is determined to remove a legal right for free school buses which has been available to parents for more than half a century. It is simply scandalous that Ministers who claim to care about school choice and rural areas now are moving ahead with plans which will heavily penalise parents who happen to have exercised choice or who live in the countryside.
“These changes will produce more pollution, more traffic and a deep sense of anger in many communities. Charles Clarke claimed earlier this year that he would only proceed if he had all-party agreement. He most certainly does not have the approval of the Conservative Party for these retrograde and mean-spirited changes. We will fight them tooth and nail.”
