PARENTS across Oxfordshire are being asked for their views on a second round of controversial plans to scrap free school buses for some children. It’s a topic that has divided opinion – the county council has to make the savings but parents believe the proposals will split up their children.

LIKE many parents, Margot Nelson, former chairman of governors at St Swithun’s Primary School in Kennington, wants her children to attend the same school.

Her 12-year-old son Sam attends Matthew Arnold School in Arnold’s Way, Oxford, and currently gets free transport despite the fact it is the family’s sixth closest school, and her daughter Kaela, nine, is at St Swithun’s in Grundy Crescent.

Under the proposals, Kaela’s nearest school would be Oxford Academy, but she would not qualify for free transport as it is considered to be on a “safe walking route”.

Mrs Nelson said: “My son is at Matthew Arnold and I want my daughter to go there too.

“The thing we are really disappointed about is the fact we have offered to work with the council to look at how we can bring down the costs.

“The cost of school transport is high, but they are going about it the wrong way and the new proposals do not address our concerns.”

Earlier this year Oxfordshire County Council caused outrage after it first proposed charging eligible parents up to £584 a year if they did not send their child to the nearest school.

It later postponed the plans over concerns about the Government policy but has since launched a second round of consultations.

The authority’s education scrutiny committee’s criticism of the first consultation was one of the main factors which made education bosses scrap the policy earlier this year.

Now it will play a key role in making sure Oxfordshire’s parents, pupils and schools get the best deal in the face of cuts.

Mark Gray, the new independent chairman of the committee, said the responses to the ongoing consultation would form a key part of the group’s recommendations to the council.

He said: “I think our role is crucial, and I think we need to wait and see what comes in from the consultation but I am aware that no matter how crucial our role is, money has got to be saved.

“The council is losing £15m a year for the next four years. Money does need to be saved.”

Oxford Mail:

  • Education scrutiny committee chairman Mark Gray outside Cholsey Primary School

Mr Gray said he favoured an option which gave children free transport to their three nearest schools.

Mother-of-two Maxine Bridges, 42, from Brize Norton, attended the consultation event in Carterton on November 11.

While her daughter Lucy, who attends Burford School, would not be affected because she will have left the school by then, her younger daughter, Chloe, 11, who has just started at Burford School, would have to move to Carterton Community College just before her GCSEs if the policy is introduced in 2015.

Mrs Bridges said: “I couldn’t pay for the bus fare and I work full time so I wouldn’t be able to drive her to school.

“She will be just about to take her GCSEs, it’s her education. If you mess up those you don’t get to do A-Levels.”

Jo Winstone, a primary school teaching assistant from Kennington, sends her son Jamie, 12, to Matthew Arnold and her daughter Nina, seven, currently goes to St Swithun’s. She faces the same problem as Mrs Nelson.

Speaking at a recent meeting at Matthew Arnold School, she said: “You are not talking about numbers, you are talking about me, about my family. I am a single parent and it would be splitting up my daughter from the children in Kennington going to Matthew Arnold.

“You are effectively forcing people to go elsewhere if they cannot afford the fare. There isn’t a choice if you cannot afford it. My community in Kennington is brilliant but I would have to think of looking elsewhere.”

The Oxon School Bus Action Group was formed after the first policy was announced, and has since become a powerful voice against transport charges.

Its members attend every council meeting where the matter is discussed, and have not been impressed with the new options, or the recent education scrutiny committee debate.

Spokesman Sue Moon said: “The proposals destroy catchment areas and primary partnerships, and mean that choice of school, even in catchments, which the county council encourages through other policies, will be down to ability to pay.

“The savings are unsub-stantiated. No modelling has been done of the real situation, taking into account the availability of places at the nearest schools, the cost of double bussing and the cost of reassessing safe walking routes.

“All of our points have been ignored by the education scrutiny committee.”

Cabinet minister for children, education and families, Melinda Tilley, said: “We will listen carefully to what people have to say, but we also hope people understand that the county council as a whole is having to find huge savings right across its services and that we are now expecting to have to find an additional £61m of savings up to 2018, on top of the £74m we had already planned for.

“Our home-to-school transport provision is more generous than our neighbouring counties and national requirements, and we have to ask whether that can continue to remain the case in the context of ever-tightening financial constraints.”

Oxford Mail:

  • Protesters against the plans demonstrate outside County Hall in July

TWO OPTIONS PRESENTED TO PARENTS

The two main options being presented to parents in the latest consultation are:

  • Option one: Like the original plans which were scrapped earlier this year, the first option would involve free transport only being offered to those children who go to their NEAREST school. For example, most people living in the village of Kennington, where a lot of children currently go to Matthew Arnold School, would only be given free transport to Oxford Academy in Littlemore. The council has claimed it can save between £1m and £2m a year from this plan, but these figures are disputed by the Oxon School Bus Action Group. This option represents the minimum level of free service the council is required by law to offer its constituents.
  • Option two: The council has described option two as “more generous” than option one. It involves the same stipulation that free transport will only be supplied to a child’s nearest school but involves a policy of allocating families into travel areas, so villages are not split. For example, if one half of a village is closest to one secondary school, and the other half closest to another, these travel areas will, in theory, mean friends are not sent to separate schools because they live on different sides of a village. Again, the council claims this option will save between £1m and £2m a year.
  • Alternatives: Other options relating to when the policy should be brought in and how the charges should be phased are also being consulted on.

CONSULTATION EVENTS

  • Friday, November 29, The Marlborough School, Woodstock
  • Monday, December 2, Icknield School, Watlington
  • Wednesday, December 4, Wheatley Park School
  • Monday, December 9, Burford School
  • Tuesday, December 10, Larkmead School, Abingdon
  • Thursday, December 12, The Warriner School, Bloxham

HAVE YOUR SAY: