"Highly disruptive" proposed change to school transport in Central Bedfordshire will go to consultation

Four of five proposed school transport policy changes were agreed by CBC’s executive last September, according to a report to CBC’s executive.

The fifth proposed alteration to remove catchment from home to school transport policy as an eligibility criteria for home to school transport required further work, said the report.

“The new policy would be effective for in-year school applications in the 2025/26 academic year, and the start of 2026/27 for new compulsory school transport applications. This change is also intended to achieve budget savings by reducing mainstream transport costs.

“The statutory guidance says changes should be phased in wherever possible, so that children who begin attending a school under one set of travel arrangements continue to benefit from those until they leave.”

Independent Leighton Linslade West councillor Steve Owen explained: “This paper brings back the nearest school clause, which the executive was uncomfortable with in September.

“The change proposal would apply to new applicants only and not to children already in the system. The change to nearest school provision would bring us into line with the vast majority of surrounding authorities. It would save us £3.7m annually when fully operational.

“It’s a big sum of money for a council with financial pressures. That money is being spent taking children past perfectly adequate schools at the expense of all council taxpayers. The consultation will uncover any other implementation issues which the paper doesn’t address in detail.”

Conservative Cranfield and Marston Moretaine councillor Sue Clark said: “I don’t agree with this in principle or the savings suggested.

“We considered this as an administration a while ago and the savings offered up were in the hundreds of thousands, not the millions. This is a really serious policy change being proposed here.

“Nearly a third of all mainstream pupils would be affected by this, with the loss of a whole form of entry and more in certain schools. The idea this is simply to consult worries me. This report doesn’t address what the alternative nearest school availability might be.

“When will that information be made available because that’s absolutely critical? What’s proposed here will be highly disruptive to the settled pattern of where schools expect to get their pupils.”

Conservative Heath and Reach councillor Mark Versallion warned: “Just by consulting, you run the risk of upsetting parents and residents.

“This is a significant serious change. It will be perceived as disruptive to parents and create anxiety. One of the reasons this was withdrawn was that it didn’t engage fully with the subject matter or the ward councillors.

“If they’d been consulted, it would intelligently inform the proposal that’s about to upset many people.”

Liberal Democrat Leighton Linslade South councillor Emma Holland-Lindsay asked if the confusion for parents had been thought through around (school) admissions by catchment and transport by nearest one.

She wondered whether a more logical system would tackle the issue of being unable to get into the nearest school because of the catchment (area). The executive agreed a nine-week consultation can proceed.