Senior North Yorkshire councillors have denied claims that an opposition member was removed as chair of an influential committee due to her questioning of a controversial policy change on home-to-school transport.
Liberal Democrat councillor Barbara Brodigan has been replaced as the chair of the children and families overview and scrutiny committee in a reshuffle prompted by the loss of the Conservatives and Independents group’s majority on the authority.
Councillors voted for Councillor Caroline Goodrick, a member of the Tory-led controlling group, to replace her.
Liberal Democrat leaders claim Conservative and Labour councillors worked together to remove Cllr Brodigan from the role after she had asked the scrutiny committee to examine the council’s controversial home-to-school transport policy change.
Cllr Brodigan has held the position since 2022 and Liberal Democrats say chairs of scrutiny committees usually stay in the role for a full council term.
Councillor Peter Lacey, leader of the Lib Dem group, said:
“We see this as a cynical political move.
“Barbara has done an excellent job in holding the council to account and listening to the concerns of parents and residents.
“If there is blame for a loss of trust between the council and parents over home-to-school transport, it does not lie with Barbara but with members on the Tory and Labour benches who have voted to get rid of her.”
Cllr Brodigan, councillor for the Ure Bank and Spa division in Ripon, added:
“We accept that the policy battle is, for now, lost, but it is unthinkable that some children still don’t know if they’ll have the company of their peer group as they make what is probably their most significant transition in their education journey.
“Equally concerning to them and their parents will be the possibility that they will be expected to make unsuitable and potentially hazardous journeys to school.”
In response, Councillor Carl Les, leader of the authority, said:
“As ever, the Lib Dems are spouting nonsense to suit their narrative — they see conspiracies everywhere.”
Cllr Les said there had previously been “numerous” changes of committee chairs during the course of a council.
He added:
“This is a change that has come about because of one councillor leaving the Conservative group and going, we know not where, so changes had to be made.
“I reached out to all the group leaders and asked for their thoughts and then reacted appropriately.
“This is nothing to do with the individual. This is to do with the fact that we believe that the children and families scrutiny committee is a very important one — it’s the only one which is attended by two executive members — and so we decided that it was a good time to make a change.”
Labour spokesperson, Councillor John Ritchie, said it was “completely untrue” that his group had worked with the Conservatives to remove the committee chair.
He added:
“They’re imagining conspiracies that simply don’t exist."
The council has faced criticism over a change to home-to-school transport, which has seen children only allowed free transport to their catchment school if it is also their nearest school.
Parents say the change is causing a host of issues, including financial hardship and disruption to peer groups, but council chiefs say the move was necessary to cut an annual school transport bill of more than £50m.
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