PLANS to cut funding for transport to schools for some children may need to be reconsidered, according to education chief Melinda Tilley.

Oxfordshire County Council is consulting on changes to school transport, scrapping free bus travel for pupils who attend schools more than three miles away when there is a closer alternative.

Yesterday, children, education and families cabinet member Melinda Tilley said the consultation had raised many issues which had not been considered.

And she revealed she had received 80 to 90 personal emails about the issue, along with in excess of 500 official responses.

She said: “Some of them are extremely reasonable, and people say, ‘Have you thought about this? and the answer is probably not.

“A couple of them asked what happens when their catchment schools are not the closest.

“I think we have got that wrong – we need to insert the word ‘catchment’.

“There are other issues that have been raised as part of the consultation, such as what happens if you don’t get your first choice school – which is the free one, and then you have to pay to go to another one which you didn’t choose.

“We have done the statutory minimum requirement in order to bring it in by September 2014, but we may have to relook at it.”

Mrs Tilley’s comments follow criticism over her use of the word “gobbledygook” in relation to the consultation document produced by her department.

Responding to concerns raised about the confusing nature of the document by a parent, she said: “We speak in ‘Local Government gobbledygook’ a lot of the time, so I am sorry for that.”

Last night Mrs Tilley defended her remark, which she said was “light-hearted”, but she admitted the council could have been clearer.

Asked if she believed the document in question was in ‘gobbledygook’, she said: “There is always some local government speak but I think we have a duty to be clearer.”

The school transport plans will be discussed by the county council’s education scrutiny committee tomorrow at 10am at County Hall.

 

PROPOSALS

  • Free school transport would be scrapped for parents who choose to send their children to a school further than three miles away from their home if it is not the school nearest them.
  • Concessionary school bus charges would rise to £541.20 per year – or £180.40 per two terms – for students who live more than three miles away from their school and do not qualify for free school transport.
  • That is a rise from £164 per two terms.
  • The council hopes to save £340,000 a year and claimed it would affect about 200 students in 2014.
  • Currently children aged eight or over who live more than three miles from their catchment school are entitled to free bus transport provided by the county council, regardless of whether it is the closest school to their home.