Hundreds of high school pupils will not receive free school bus passes following cuts which will save Kirklees Council around £114,000 a year.
From September 2019 the rules over which pupils qualify for free passes will change in Kirklees, affecting around 371 pupils who mainly live in Meltham and Kirkheaton.
Families in Meltham whose children attend Honley High or Holmfirth High could end up being £370 out of pocket per year. The changes also affect families in Kirkheaton whose children attend King James’ School at Almondbury.
The council says the changes will bring the authority into line with Department for Education guidance which grants free transport to pupils only if they are more than three miles from the nearest school geographically, rather than catchment school.
Families who are no longer eligible for free transport “will need to budget for the cost of Home to School travel”, says a council report which states: “The law provides protection for families where pupils are entitled to free school meals, of if their parents are in receipt of maximum Working Tax Credits.”
The council is also considering moving from a system of providing bus passes up front to a system of reimbursing the costs of travel to parents retrospectively to avoid travel being paid for in advance and then not used.
Town councillors discussed the changes with several concerned parents at a meeting of Meltham Town Council on Monday evening.
Clr Richard Noon said he understood that every single child affected would have to be assessed by the council which would be a costly bureaucratic headache.
“This has been poorly thought out,” he said.
“The ramifications for parents and for school planning don’t seem to add up. We need to see more detail.”
Meltham Primary School posted details of the changes on its Facebook page, saying: “This (£370 per pupil) will be a large financial burden, especially considering that some families receive free transport due to the distance from their chosen school.”
A Kirklees Council spokesperson said: “The proposal to change the council’s mainstream home to school transport policy was agreed at the Cabinet meeting on January 23 2018.”
