Agenda item

Purpose: To review the Individual Decision relating to the Home to School Transport Policy 2011/12. 

(Councillor David Rendel declared a personal interest in Agenda item 6 by virtue of the fact that he was a member of a local cycling group (Spokes). As his interest was personal and not prejudicial he was permitted to take part in the debate and vote on the matter).

(Councillor Tony Vickers declared a personal interest in Agenda item 6 by virtue of the fact that he was a member of a local cycling group (Spokes). As his interest was personal and not prejudicial he was permitted to take part in the debate).

The Commission considered the call-in of the Individual Decision relating to the Home to School Transport Policy 2011/12 (Agenda Item 6).

Councillor Barbara Alexander opened the item by making the following points:

·                    Local Authorities were required to determine a Home to School Transport Policy on an annual basis as part of parents’ guides to admissions.

·                    The Children and Young People Policy Development Commission formed a task group to consider the Policy in detail in 2009 and their findings were endorsed by the Executive.  The Policy for the 2010/11 academic year reflected the findings of this work.  As the effect of these changes had yet to be felt, the decision was taken to not change the Policy for 2011/12 other than to apply an inflation factor of approximately 1.9% to the charges made for the fare paying scheme.

In addressing the reasons given for the call-in, Councillor Alexander advised that:

·                    A number of people were consulted as part of the production of the Policy.  This initially included all Members and appropriate Officers.  There was also a five day period prior to the Individual Decision being taken to allow for further responses.  This opportunity was taken up a year ago by the Shadow Portfolio Holder and a change was made as a result.  This had not occurred this year.  Comments were welcome, but it was disappointing that they were not made until this late stage.

·                    In relation to cycling, it was not felt that this technical document was the appropriate place to promote cycling and an alternative mechanism needed to be used for doing so.  This document was more concerned with legal requirements.  The benefits of promoting cycling were acknowledged and much work was done through the Sustainable Modes of Transport Strategy (SMOTs) to do this. 

Councillor Keith Woodhams, as one of the call-in Members, made the following points:

·                    The report stated there were no environmental implications to consider as a result of the Policy.  This statement was not concurred with.

·                    There were many areas of positive work being undertaken to encourage sustainable transport, this included through school travel plans, materials provided to schools and incentives offered to pupils to encourage their participation.  This was a key role undertaken by the School Travel Plan Advisor.  The recent announcement that this post would be lost due to the cessation of Government funding was a huge concern, as the good work undertaken could not continue and this could have a major environmental impact with more children being transported to school by car.  This decision did not support the Council’s ‘Greener’ policies and the benefits to children could be lost.  The view of the call-in Members was that alternative funding should be found so that the invaluable work of this post could continue and an offer was made to the Executive to discuss the evaluation of this post to assess whether it should continue and, if so, alternative means of funding it.  It was further suggested that the Executive should be asked to consider a savings analysis between the longer term cost savings that could be achieved by this work in keeping more cars off the road, as opposed to the immediate savings found by deleting the post.  This would help to illustrate whether there was the potential to retain the post.

Councillor Alexander gave her view that in an ideal world the post would be retained, however if there was agreement to identify alternative funding then a separate activity would have to cease or be reduced.

Councillor Tony Vickers, another of the call-in Members, added the following points:

·                    He felt there was a lack of joined up policy making across the Council in relation to transport.  This had a particular impact in rural areas. 

·                    He did raise his concerns at an earlier stage as part of Member training in relation to home to school transport, but this had not been addressed in the Policy.

·                    The need for robust mechanisms (the Policy) to perform statutory duties was acknowledged, but there was a need to encourage parents and their children to use healthier, safer and sustainable modes of transport to school.  This was felt to be important by all the call-in Members, particularly in the urban wards they represented.  There was too much concentration in the policy on bus travel. 

·                    It was felt that significant efforts were already being made to encourage walking to school within a reasonable distance.  An area which needed more work was to encourage pupils who lived closer than the distance at which public transport could be provided but at too far a distance to walk.  It was most likely that cars would be used in these instances.  Increased numbers cycling would provide a number of benefits including environmental, health and to the road network.  The current percentage of Newbury/Thatcham pupils cycling of  6% and across the District of 4% showed that there was willingness to cycle, which could be increased with additional cycle routes and appropriate training.

·                    A reasonable uptake in cycling would help meet the costs of investing in cycle schemes, when considering potential savings to, for example, highway schemes by reduced car usage.  

·                    The introductory text of the Policy stated that future documents would have cognisance of the overall aims and objectives of the Local Transport Plan and it was questioned why this was not already the case. 

·                    Parents could only be encouraged to send their children to school by bike and it was queried whether a voluntary scheme could be established for the 2011/12 academic year, whereby parents received a small financial allowance as an incentive.  There was already free Bikeability training for year 6 pupils and increased cycle parking within schools to support this.  Such a scheme would reduce the costs of administering the policy and would reduce the cost to the tax payer for public transport to schools.  It was therefore requested that the Policy be redrafted to allow for this provision. 

A view was given that the reasons provided for the call-in were adequately covered within the Policy and the addition suggested should form part of the work on the next version of the document.  The cost benefits of this should also be considered as part of this.  A proposal was then made by Councillor Quentin Webb to accept the Individual Decision to approve the document.  The proposal was not seconded. 

Councillor David Rendel then made a proposal that the Policy should be referred back to the Portfolio Holder for further consideration on including incentives to encourage more cycling to schools, such as that described earlier in the meeting.  This was seconded by Councillor Jeff Brooks. 

Councillor Alexander advised that she would be willing to consider the proposal.  However, she voiced concern that if this proposal was accepted it would cause an unacceptable delay to the publishing of the Policy, as it needed to be available for parents in the coming academic year. 

As a result the proposal was adapted to accept the Policy for 2011/12 to avoid a delay, with a request that incentives to encourage more cycling to schools be considered for inclusion as part of the consultation for the 2012/13 Policy. 

This proposal was then put to the vote and was accepted by the Commission. 

RESOLVED that the Individual Decision to approve the Policy for 2011/12 be accepted by the Commission in order to avoid a delay, with a request that incentives to encourage more cycling to schools be considered for inclusion as part of the consultation for the 2012/13 Policy.