Contentious home to school transport proposals will be debated at Full Council, after Labour councillors forced it onto the agenda.
The party believes the Durham County Council plans represent “yet another raid on household budgets”, after the Tory-led Coalition Cabinet running the Council waved through plans for an uplift in the daily charge to £2 on the Standard and Maintained Concessionary Scheme, which impacts on parents of children with special educational needs.
While Cabinet approved the proposals, Labour won the right to debate them at Full Council at this week’s Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Management Board meeting, which voted in favour of a motion tabled and seconded by Cllrs Stacey Deinali and Jake Miller, respectively.
Labour claim Coalition plans will prove catastrophic to low-income households, particularly those with more than one child. And while the Scrutiny Board’s decision to further look at them won’t necessarily see proposals overturned, members can make recommendations for the Cabinet to reconsider and highlight areas where more work is required.
There is also criticism of Council consultation, which wasn’t promoted (receiving just 324 responses) and has left many parents and carers upset about the impact on their children’s education and welfare, not to mention their family finances.
Labour’s Shadow Portfolio Holder for Families, Cllr Stacey Deinali, said:
“It is shameful that once again Labour must shine the spotlight on a Tory-led Coalition decision that represents yet another raid on household budgets, following two Council Tax hikes in as many years, a refusal to back the Universal Credit uplift and its decision not to lobby Government to end austerity measures that stripped quarter of a billion pounds from County Durham’s budget.
“How much more does this Council expect our residents to give? Under this Government, Council Tax is up, food costs are up, energy prices are up, rents are up, mortgages are through the roof and now families are being told to shell out even more to make sure their kids receive an education! There is a cost of living crisis and just like the Tories in Parliament, the Tories and Tory-enablers of County Durham are asking those who receive the least to pay the most.”
At the next Full Council, members will debate the £2 charge for the Standard and Maintained Concessionary Scheme and promotion of a Personal Travel Budget for parents and carers of children with SEND, pushing responsibility of finding affordable transport onto families and placing even more pressures on families to ensure their child gets to and from school.
“We could not stop Cabinet waving this through, but by securing this further debate, Labour hopes we can persuade enough Independent councillors to reject this Tory-led plan,” added Cllr Jake Miller, Shadow Portfolio Role for Connectivity and Inclusion.
“There are so many worrying aspects in this new policy, from a proposed move to review individual needs for those receiving single person transport – mostly children with SEND- to creating ‘hubs’ for young people to be picked up collectively, raising safeguarding concerns. The fact Cabinet backed these proposals, and Lib Dem councillors questioning why they were attending Scrutiny Committee, brings shame on them. But if Full Council interrogates this policy and still waves it through, it shames the whole authority.
“Labour feel these changes are cruel, inappropriate and the money saved is not worth the potential harm it could cause.”
Durham County Council has a statutory duty to provide Home to School Transport for youngsters meeting criteria set by the Department for Education. It currently provides transport for over 9,000 young people, with estimated costs set to increase to £29.1m.