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Sussex councils spend millions on school transport

5:00pm Thursday 9th July 2009


Councils across Sussex are spending millions of pounds a year providing transport to take children to and from school.

The figures show the amount of taxpayers' cash being used to provide private hire vehicles for journeys rather than a child using public transport.

In some cases, councils are obliged to provide the transport if a child has special needs.

But there are a number of instances where pupils without special needs are being transported by councils.

As revealed earlier this week, West Sussex County Council spent £5,588,500 on transport last year - with £864,615 spent on pupils without special needs.

In East Sussex, the County Council is obliged to provide transport if a child lives more than three miles, or two miles if under eight years old, from their designated school.

If there is no appropriate public transport available the local authority may pay for the child to be transported by taxi. Children with special travel requirements may also be eligible.

The total spent on hired transport in the financial year of 2008/09 was £8,999,069, with £439,806 being spent on taxis and private bus and coach hire for primary schools and £1,895,457 for secondary schools.

The Council spent £6,663,746 on taxis for special travel requirements, pupil referral units, further education, external children's services authority and looked after children. The majority of this, £5,867,228, was spent on taxis for special travel requirements.

Brighton and Hove City Council spent £2,750,000 on various vehicles to take either disabled, special needs or injured children to school in 2008/09.

It said it does not transport able-bodied children to school for distance reasons.

A spokesman said: “These would be mainly minibuses or vehicles converted to carry wheelchairs and some are taxis.”

The amount of money being spent came to light when the parents of ten-year-old Daniel Foulds-Holt calculated it would cost the council £80 a day to ferry their son to and from school in a taxi.

Jeremy Holt and Ros Foulds, from Edburton, near Henfield, applied to send Daniel to Downlands Community School in Hassocks, but he lost out because they live 350 metres outside the recently changed five-mile catchment area.

Instead he will go to Steyning Grammar School which is 4.8 miles away. Despite there being a bus service from outside their front door to Downlands, Daniel will have to get a taxi to school in Steyning which has to be funded by West Sussex County Council.


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Your Say YourArgus

stan bailey, brighton says...
5:10pm Thu 9 Jul 09

I expect if they walked three miles they would find the necessary public transport to take them the rest of the journey

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stan bailey, brighton says...
5:10pm Thu 9 Jul 09

I expect if they walked three miles they would find the necessary public transport to take them the rest of the journey

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Txa, B&H says...
5:34pm Thu 9 Jul 09

It would be interesting to know if the lottery system has increased the use of transport provided by the Council.?

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davyboy, abingdon, oxon says...
7:51pm Thu 9 Jul 09

Txa wrote:
It would be interesting to know if the lottery system has increased the use of transport provided by the Council.?
of course it has. if they all went to the nearest school, they could walk or gat a bus. the council created this waste of your money, by not thinking things through before implementation. each child should go to their nearest school, but, the council gave parents the choice system, and are now paying for it. there wouldn't be a problem if all school taught to the same level, but as this is not the case, parents rightly want the best for their kids. this is fine in an ideal world, but it is not ideal. far from it, and this has created this fight for school places every year. the council should disband the lottery system, and make each child go to their nearest available school. it is a very simple process to administer, as they know where people live (electoral roll) and how many places are required at each school each year. it is just a question of fitting kids into places, with maybe a little juggling to fit. i'm convinced it can be done, but they don't like the idea.

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Henfield Hovite, Henfield says...
8:54pm Thu 9 Jul 09

As I mentioned in another article yesterday there are about half a dozen school buses that run between henfield and steyning grammar each day. Many parents I know have to drive their kids from woodmancote, smalldole etc to the bus stop, but that is the downside for living in the sticks. But no, this is not possible for Mr Holt and Ms Foulds, they want they son to get a bus to hassocks 10 miles away and where he will probably have less friends but doesnt give them any hassle. Please drive your son the mile of so to the bus route like everyone else has to without scrounging £80 a day off us taxpayers!! Im not bitter!!

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Osama bin there, Brighton says...
10:14pm Thu 9 Jul 09

I really don't understand why it's PUBLIC money that has to be used to get pupils to and from school.
I went to secondary school in the 60s, and although we got free bus passes, the idea of taxis being used would have been laughed out of court.
Get real. If you have to get 3 buses to get there - too bad. If the only way you can get there is if you are driven by your parents - too bad. Join the real world.

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alyn, southwick, southwick says...
7:25am Fri 10 Jul 09

Osama bin there wrote:
I really don't understand why it's PUBLIC money that has to be used to get pupils to and from school. I went to secondary school in the 60s, and although we got free bus passes, the idea of taxis being used would have been laughed out of court. Get real. If you have to get 3 buses to get there - too bad. If the only way you can get there is if you are driven by your parents - too bad. Join the real world.
Read the story probably - either all or the majority of money spent on "transport" is for children with special needs who can't just walk or catch a bus however many there are. (Transport included minibuses, adapted vehicles therefore carrying more than one person AND bus passes.)

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Andy R, Hove says...
4:22pm Fri 10 Jul 09

davyboy wrote:
Txa wrote: It would be interesting to know if the lottery system has increased the use of transport provided by the Council.?
of course it has. if they all went to the nearest school, they could walk or gat a bus. the council created this waste of your money, by not thinking things through before implementation. each child should go to their nearest school, but, the council gave parents the choice system, and are now paying for it. there wouldn't be a problem if all school taught to the same level, but as this is not the case, parents rightly want the best for their kids. this is fine in an ideal world, but it is not ideal. far from it, and this has created this fight for school places every year. the council should disband the lottery system, and make each child go to their nearest available school. it is a very simple process to administer, as they know where people live (electoral roll) and how many places are required at each school each year. it is just a question of fitting kids into places, with maybe a little juggling to fit. i'm convinced it can be done, but they don't like the idea.
That's funny...in the version of this story that I am reading, it says BHCC "does not transport able-bodied children to school for distance reasons."

So your attempt to draw any link to the admissions system sort of....well....collap
ses at the first hurdle doesn't it.

Maybe trying to view the goings-on in Brighton from Abingdon is proving too much?


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davyboy, abingdon, oxon says...
8:26pm Fri 10 Jul 09

Andy R wrote:
davyboy wrote:
Txa wrote: It would be interesting to know if the lottery system has increased the use of transport provided by the Council.?
of course it has. if they all went to the nearest school, they could walk or gat a bus. the council created this waste of your money, by not thinking things through before implementation. each child should go to their nearest school, but, the council gave parents the choice system, and are now paying for it. there wouldn't be a problem if all school taught to the same level, but as this is not the case, parents rightly want the best for their kids. this is fine in an ideal world, but it is not ideal. far from it, and this has created this fight for school places every year. the council should disband the lottery system, and make each child go to their nearest available school. it is a very simple process to administer, as they know where people live (electoral roll) and how many places are required at each school each year. it is just a question of fitting kids into places, with maybe a little juggling to fit. i'm convinced it can be done, but they don't like the idea.
That's funny...in the version of this story that I am reading, it says BHCC "does not transport able-bodied children to school for distance reasons."

So your attempt to draw any link to the admissions system sort of....well....collap

ses at the first hurdle doesn't it.

Maybe trying to view the goings-on in Brighton from Abingdon is proving too much?

actually, yes it does if they place you more than 3 miles from your home. maybe not by taxi, but free bus passes are issued to cover the trip to school. so the council does pay!!!!

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Andy R, Hove says...
10:22pm Fri 10 Jul 09

So is the current admissions process causing any more children to need transport to school than before?


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