Bridgend Council’s Cabinet has approved changes to the county’s home-school transport policy at an extraordinary meeting yesterday (pdf). You can watch the meeting here.
A new policy had to be agreed before 1st October.
The policy changes include:
- Increasing the minimum distance to be eligible for free transport to the legal minimum (1.5 miles for nursery children, 2 miles for primary, 3 miles for secondary), where BCBC has determined a safe walking/cycling route is available.
- Ending the “sibling rule”, where younger pupils are eligible for free transport on the same terms as older siblings attending the same school.
- Withdrawing free transport for English-medium nursery children (3-4 year olds), as well as post-16 students attending English-medium secondary schools.
- Free transport would continue for post-16 and nursery children who attend Welsh-medium or faith-based schools and live beyond the minimum distance.
Special needs transport changes dropped
One proposal – to introduce personal transport budgets for pupils with Additional Learning Needs – has been dropped.
Instead, the new policy will retain free transport for ALN pupils “if their application is accompanied by appropriate evidence which is confirmed by the local authority’s Learner Support Service.”
In July, a public consultation report revealed strong opposition.
While some of the policies have effectively already been introduced (particularly those around minimum distances), the new policy and all of its measures won’t come into force until September 2025.
You can read the full policy here (pdf).
New policy “helps promote and protect the Welsh language”, but driven by budget cuts
Joint Cabinet Member for Resources, Cllr. Melanie Evans (Lab, Pencoed & Penprysg), asked how the measures square themselves with equalities laws, as they appear to advantage Welsh-medium and faith-based nursery and post-16 students. Cllr. Evans noted that while there are duties to treat the Welsh language no less favourably than English, surely the opposite is equally true?
Corporate Director for Education, Lindsay Harvey, told the Cabinet that the new policy helps promote the Welsh language – a Welsh Government priority – and protects access to both Welsh-medium and faith-based education (religion being a protected characteristic in equalities law).
This is perfectly valid given the limited number of Welsh-medium and faith-based schools schools in the county.
Cabinet Member for Education and Youth Services, Cllr. Martyn Jones (Lab, Garw Valley), committed to monitoring “unintended consequences” of the policy change – such as increased traffic outside schools – as part of feedback from a council scrutiny committee.
Nonetheless, Cllr. Jones described it as a “reluctant decision” that has been driven solely by budget constraints.
The new policy is expected to save BCBC up to £1million a year from the 2025-26 financial year onwards.
