North Yorkshire Council chiefs have rejected calls to scrap an unpopular school transport policy, telling opposition councillors they would make the same decision if they were responsible for the authority’s finances.
Campaigners told members of the council’s executive at County Hall in Northallerton that they risked creating a legacy of harming children by continuing with a policy which provides free transport only to a child’s nearest suitable school.
But the executive instead agreed to refer a range of recommendations arising from a post-implementation review of the controversial home-to-school transport policy to full council for consideration.
Councillor Simon Myers, executive member for culture, arts and housing, said campaigners had called on council leaders to be “brave” and return to a system based on catchment schools.
But he added:
“Bravery sometimes means, in this context, making yourselves unpopular for the wider good.”
The Conservative councillor highlighted Liberal Democrat-run Westmorland and Furness Council, which was also moving to a nearest-school system.
He added:
“A return to catchment is not something any of them (opposition members) would do if they had the responsibility for delivering services in North Yorkshire.
“It’s not what they’d do where they are in control. And the sooner people grow up and stop courting votes on the basis of being anti-everything the council does and saying they know better, the better it would be for the residents.”
Critics of the policy, which was introduced partly to tackle an annual school transport bill of more than £52m, have continued to question whether it will deliver the anticipated savings.
However, Councillor Peter Wilkinson, executive member for finance and resources, said the changes had already saved the council £317,000 in 2025/26.
He added:
“We need to have a sustainable budget and I’ve not seen anything from the opposition, including the Liberals and Independents, where, if we were to abandon this policy, we would get those additional savings from.”
Earlier, the meeting heard from Tockwith mother-of-three Kate Helme, from the School Transport Action Group (STAG), which has fought the policy change since it was agreed in 2024.
She said the recommendations arising from the review failed to fix the policy:
“Do you want your legacy to be this policy and how it has caused harm to children, harm to communities, and harm to North Yorkshire schools?
“Leadership takes bravery, like bravery to accept when something isn’t working and to change course.
“I don’t know how much more you need to hear before you do.”
Swaledale mother Charlotte Fowler told councillors how her daughter and her friends had grown up together at primary school but were now split between four secondary schools because of the nearest-school rule.
She said:
“While one bus served them all to the catchment school, we now have one bus, one minibus, two taxis, and some children travelling by car with parents.
“This is the reality of the policy, and it’s happening across North Yorkshire.”
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Peter Lacey, the Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition, said it was the job of opposition councillors to “challenge decisions when they are not working, to listen to residents and to fight for better outcomes”.
He added:
“Parents came forward today with powerful, personal accounts of what this policy has meant for their children, and councillors put forward practical solutions, but the executive didn’t listen.”
The executive rejected a call from Conservative councillor Andrew Lee, member for Appleton Roebuck and Church Fenton, to consider changing the policy to ‘nearest school in North Yorkshire’ to reduce children having to travel to out of county schools.
A rule change which could help parents whose children use a single drop-off site for multiple schools will however be considered.
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