A full consultation has been agreed by East Sussex County Council’s Cabinet on free transport to denominational schools. These are church schools where the ownership of the buildings rests with the relevant church.
Currently the Council has chosen to give children going to these schools free transport where the distance is over three miles and the child or parent is of that faith. The consultation will ask residents their views on whether these arrangements should continue.
Councillor Keith Glazier, Lead Cabinet Member for Children’s and Adults Services, said: “I urge all residents to give us their views because the decisions we make on this issue will have an impact on what savings we need to make and the services we provide. We will have to consider whether the current arrangements are fair and applied equally to everyone. Most parents who choose not to send their child to a local school have to pay the transport costs. It can be argued it is unfair that parents whose children attend denominational schools receive help with their transport whilst children at other schools do not.
“The County Council is committed to low council tax increases, which is what local people have also told us that they want. But the money we get from the Government doesn’t cover our inflation costs. This means we have to make some difficult decisions about what services we continue to provide.”
“We have had to spend significantly more than planned this year on school transport because costs are increasing well above inflation. If we cannot save money on school transport we will have to find savings elsewhere.”
Residents are to be asked their views on various options. Leaflets will be sent to all parents and from 19 February the questionnaire will be available in our consultation section.
The consultation will end on 23 March 2007, and recommendations will be considered by Cabinet on 1 May. Any changes would take effect from September 2008.
Notes to editors
The Government is changing the law on school transport. In future the Council will have to help where children attend denominational secondary schools which are 2 -15 miles away and whose families receive free school meals or working tax credit.
Some councils have recently reviewed and changed their arrangements.
At the moment the Council spends £585,000 on transporting 1,334 pupils to denominational schools who attend 10 of our 183 primary and secondary schools and nine schools outside East Sussex. By making changes this cost would be reduced over seven years.
Residents are to be asked:
- whether they think children attending a denominational school should be entitled to free transport
- whether the council should:
- provide help for children from low income families living more than 15 miles from the nearest denominational secondary school
- apply the same arrangements for denominational primary schools as will apply to secondary schools
- expect parents to pay towards the transport costs to denominational schools, and if so how much
- support families with younger children who are yet to go to denominational primary or secondary school
- help large families by providing free transport to three or more children in a family who attend denominational schools
- make a cash contribution to denominational schools so they can make arrangements they think are best.
Reference:
1274
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