North Yorkshire children 'could have to travel 120 miles to school'

During a Richmond (Yorks) Area Committee meeting on Monday (November 18), councillors heard that children travelling from parts of the Yorkshire Dales could have to endure a significantly longer journey if roads that they would usually travel on were too dangerous to go on.

Within the meeting, councillors heard from the headteacher of Reeth and Gunnerside Primary School, Gordon Stainsby, who highlighted that some children at his school had been suggested Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria as their 'local' secondary school - which would involve journeys on roads that could be 'impassable' and 'treacherous' in winter conditions. 

North Yorkshire children 'could have to travel 120 miles to school':

In an impassioned speech to the committee, Mr Stainsby noted that if buses from Reeth and Gunnerside couldn't access roads in the Yorkshire Dales and the border of Cumbria, they would be forced to travel to the A1(M) at Scotch Corner, before joining the A66 to Cumbria; equating to a near 120-mile journey for children.

"Children will be forced to miss days of school, due to the road conditions," said Mr Stainsby at the meeting.

"We have worked with parents and now understand their frustrations and concerns."

This speech from the headteacher came as part of a wider discussion on North Yorkshire Council's home-to-school transport policy, which it adopted in July this year.

Under the new guidelines, children in North Yorkshire only get free school bus travel to the nearest school. 

A banner at the protest last Wednesday (Image: STUART BOULTON)

On the North Yorkshire Council website, the policy states that it provides free school transport to the nearest school if it is over two miles in walking distance for children under eight years of age and three miles for children aged over eight.

The local authority goes on to say: "The nearest suitable school for transport purposes includes schools in neighbouring authorities. If you live near the boundary, you might find that the nearest school is outside of North Yorkshire."

Despite the new policy being in place, it has been met with resistance, with a protest group being set up by angered parents and guardians, who have created a petition.

The petition, which has since been signed by over 2100 people, was delivered to councillors at County Hall in Northallerton last Wednesday (November 13) and the Department for Education in London.

School transport protestors at County Hall in Northallerton (Image: STUART BOULTON)

According to the group, the council's new policy 'removes choice for families living in villages and means many will be required to send their children to schools outside the county.'

These concerns were repeated at the Richmond committee meeting on Monday, with several parents and concerned Yorkshire Dales residents speaking at the beginning of the meeting. 

Charlie Fowler, who is part of the protest group, believes that the council have 'forgotten our children' and has urged the council to rethink its policy. 

Speaking at Monday's meeting, she said: "North Yorkshire Council doesn't understand rural communities. It says that the policy picks the shortest route possible to school for children - but these could be roads that aren't suitable or ones that can't accommodate a bus."

These calls for a rethink in the policy were joined by another member of the protest group, Jo Foster, who said that "anger is growing" among parents in North Yorkshire against this policy. 

"The petition shows the strength of opposition against this policy," Jo said at the meeting

"Some councillors have said that this change only impacts 10 per cent of children in North Yorkshire, that's still around 10,000 children in the region.

"North Yorkshire isn't just towns and cities, it's rural communities. 

"Anger is growing. Parents do not forget and we will not forget this policy that simply doesn't work."

In response to the concerns of parents, a statement from North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for inclusion, Amanda Newbold was read out at Monday's meeting, which noted that the council had adopted its current policy after a vote was taken in July this year. 

The statement added: "We understand the concerns from parents and carers around transporting children and young people to the school of their choice, as well as concerns if siblings will attend different schools due to travel costs.

"However, parents and carers still have a choice as to where to send their children. It is important for them to now factor in travel costs if they choose a school that is not their nearest school. 

"The new policy does not directly affect where children go to school – that is still the choice of the parent or carer."

Alongside the statement from the council's assistant director for inclusion, the local authority has issued a separate Q&A to help parents understand the policy.

The new policy includes: 

• Free transport for eligible pupils to the nearest school to their home address.  
• Help with travel to a child who lives within the statutory walking distance to their catchment or nearest suitable school if the route has been assessed as “unsafe” and there is no other alternative route below the statutory walking distance. 
• As before, all routes used to take pupils to school will be risk-assessed. We realise there may be several new routes this year.
• Discretionary powers have been extended for the eligibility of travel assistance for secondary-age pupils from low-income families to attend one of their three nearest suitable schools within two to 12 miles. This is to reflect the rural context of the county and ensure low-income families in rural areas are supported.
• A change will apply to new applications from this September (this September’s Reception and Year 7 cohorts would not be affected as they applied in last year’s admissions round).

The council say they have created a digital mapping tool to 'help parents and carers find out their nearest school'. 

North Yorkshire Council has provided this information on the digital tool: 

• Our digital mapping tool is used to determine the closest school to each home address. The distance is calculated using roads, footpaths, bridleways and public rights of way. We know that thousands of parents have successfully accessed the system during this year's admissions round. 
• The distance measurement is used to determine eligibility for travel assistance after a child has been offered a school place, and where a child is eligible to free home to school travel, the council has a duty to make suitable travel arrangements. 
• In most cases eligible children will join existing contracts, however, in the situation where this involves contracting a new transport service, each route is assessed to ensure it is safe for travel. 
• We would like to clarify that the routes used by the mapping system are not as the ‘crow flies’ and are unlikely to be the exact journey used to travel to school - this is because the contracts that are arranged are not necessarily the shortest routes. Instead, journeys need to take account of the home locations of all passengers on the route, local knowledge, vehicle size and time spent travelling.