Council cuts faith school transport service

Nottinghamshire County Council has cut a service which means children attending faith schools can use subsidised buses.

The Reform-UK led authority has been reviewing its discretionary bus service for Catholic and Church of England schools due to "significant financial pressures".

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday councillors agreed to stop the discretionary transport service from September 2027.

Council leader Mick Barton said: "This is a difficult decision but looking at the evidence it doesn't leave us with much choice."

The scheme sees parents pay £420 per year for primary school pupils and £515 per year for secondary school pupils.

The authority said about 520 pupils travelled on its buses to faith schools either with a discounted bus pass as part of the scheme or on an ad-hoc basis.

The authority said if no changes were made to the scheme, the cost over the next six years would be up to £7.5m.

Some bus services are costing the authority more than £29,000 per pupil per year, the council said.

Nearby counties of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire withdrew their discretionary schemes more than 15 years ago.

Barton said: "We educate over 126,000 students in Nottinghamshire who we do not provide transport for.

"The number of pupils accessing the scheme has reduced significantly over recent years from 2,000 in 2006 to 520 today."

The council carried out a consultation on four options, which included cancelling some of the bus routes entirely from either 2027 or 2031.

The authority has said any changes will not impact pupils from low income families as a mitigation package will be available.

James McGeachie, chief executive of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Trust, previously said "a lot of families would be so disadvantaged" by any cuts.

Some Reform councillors suggested church organisations could foot the bill to provide a bus service.

Reform councillor James Rawson said: "For me, what matters is fairness.

"It doesn't feel right that the majority are paying for the minority."

Rory Green, who represents Kirkby South for Reform, added: "This has weighed on us all very heavily. As someone who is a Christian I have toiled with this for weeks.

"It is not the state's responsibility to drive your child to school based on your choice of place. I say that not in an aggressive way but in a peaceful way."

The Labour group had written to the authority to express "extreme disappointment" with the decision.

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