Outrage as Sussex council plan to spend £80 a day on schoolboy's cab

10:30pm Monday 6th July 2009

By Richard Gurner

A council planning to spend up to £80 a day on taxi fare to take a ten-year-old boy to school has been criticised for wasting taxpayers' cash.

Schoolboy Daniel Foulds-Holt will be taxied to and from school next term - even though a bus to a neighbouring school stops outside his front door.

His parents Jeremy Holt and wife Ros Foulds have branded the £80 cost a waste of money.

Tory MP Nick Herbert claimed “common sense” is needed to save taxpayers' cash after the boy's parents found out West Sussex County Council's annual school transport topped £5 million.

Ten-year-old Daniel lost out on his first choice of secondary school because he lives 350 metres outside the recently changed five-mile catchment area.

Instead he was placed in Steyning Grammar School, 4.8 miles from their home in the tiny village of Edburton, near Henfield – despite there being a school bus which stops outside their house to first choice Downlands Community School, in Hassocks.

The only way to get to Steyning is by taxi, which by law the council has to fund.

Mrs Foulds, 45, a psychologist, said: “It makes no sense at all. It puts my son in a ridiculous position, is a financial waste and it's environmentally damaging.”

Husband Jeremy, a 46-year-old managing director, added: “Both schools are good schools and so it is not a situation of making objections to either but we think it's perverse to spend so much money on transport.”

The pair contacted taxi firms that are contracted by the council to ask how much they would quote the local authority for the twice-daily school run.

Mr Holt said: “The nearest approved taxi company is in Burgess Hill and they would have to come from there to here to the school and back to Burgess Hill.”

Mrs Foulds calculated that her son’s transport would cost the taxpayer more than £80,000 over the next five years.

After putting in a Freedom of Information request the couple found the council transport bill had risen from £4,301,629 in 2004-05 to £5,588,500 in 2008-09.

Although the majority of the cash last year was spent on transporting children with special needs, a massive £864,615 was spent on taxi fares for pupils without special needs.

According to figures released to the couple, this means an increase from £567,616 in 2004-05.

Mrs Foulds said: “Spending money on taxis for children with specials needs we can all understand but what shocks me is that not far short of £1m is being spent on people like Daniel who could get on a bus.

"In our case the council could end up paying £16,000 a year which is totally unnecessary. The public interest issue is about money.”

Nick Herbert, Arundel and South Downs MP, said: “The council need to use some discretion in this case so that a common sense solution can be arrived at to save public money.

“When the school bus stops practically outside the door it makes sense to allow him to travel to the school of his parents' choice rather than incur so much cost in taking him to Steyning.

“I accept there has to be rules but there does need to be some discretion and common sense in exceptional cases.”

Councillor Peter Griffiths, West Sussex County Council's cabinet member for education and schools, said there would be a review of school travel and admissions.

He said: "It's in its early stages but the very detailed submission made by the couple will be considered as part of the process."

Lib Dem opposition councillor Morwen Millson said: “I welcome the cabinet member's decision to review the council's school travel and admissions policy but in the meantime the decision with this child should be reviewed.”

A council spokesman said it could not comment on the £80 figure but said: "The student concerned does not start school until September and it may be a taxi journey that is shared.

“We have contracts with more than 40 operators to provide transport for children with special needs, as well as some non-special needs students, and there is a contract process designed to keep down costs.”