Oxfordshire parents 'shocked' at bus services decision delay

Speaking in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, council leader Liz Leffman was still unable to reassure 235 families that withdrawal on eight bus routes will not take place. 

There are more than 1,300 families who use the scheme in total, 235 of whom are affected by this withdrawal.

The Spare Seats Scheme allows parents and carers who do not qualify for free home to school transport to pay for seats on buses where there is space.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire parents accuse council of 'democratic denial'

Ms Leffman said she was “absolutely committed to finding a solution” but parents at the meeting have since accused the council of “smashing up a service that prevents hundreds of thousands of car journeys a year”.

The county council's cabinet was considering amendment 4B which the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee unanimously voted for and recommended to cabinet.

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This amendment stated: “That a moratorium on changes to the Spare Seats Scheme is set up swiftly to allow time for the Council to address outstanding issues.”

Parents have told the Oxford Mail they felt exasperated when Ms Leffman said she would not be taking up the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendation and suggested the “committee may have misunderstood”.

Ms Leffman said in the meeting: “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really understand what you mean by a moratorium, if that means stopping all work.”

READ MORE: Oxfordshire council leader 'very sorry' for 'anxiety' caused

Sarah Obinna, from North Aston and a teacher with a child at the Warriner School, said she was “shocked” by what she saw at Tuesday’s meeting.

She explained: “If you take school buses away from the villages, you lose us and everyone suffers.

“For the leader of the council to claim she did not understand what a moratorium on the withdrawal meant was impossible.

“The wording of the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendation had been officially provided to the cabinet long before the meeting and was repeated many times during it.

“To feign ignorance was disrespectful to the Scrutiny Committee, to councillors, to cabinet members who support the moratorium and to all affected families.”

READ MORE: Oxfordshire parents speak from heart over Spare Seats Scheme

Ms Obinna said that as a teacher she wanted to speak on behalf of all the parents who are “key workers” and tell the cabinet “that school staff, prison staff and social care and hospital staff can’t drive our children to school because of the hours we work.”

During the meeting, councillor Liz Brighouse highlighted that “mitigations” had already been delivered for 150 parents and “significant progress” had been made towards finding a solution.

However, Pete Walker, who lives in Stadhampton and has two children at Icknield School, said Tuesday’s meeting was not an example of “how good leaders should behave”.

He said: “When they say officers are working hard to find solutions, this means the council is giving the telephone number of a bus company it likes, to parents whose kids are losing their school bus, and then expecting them to manage setting up bus contracts that are doomed to fail.”

READ MORE: Conservative MPs urge rethink on scrapping of school bus scheme

He added: “Whilst 90 per cent of the pollution in Oxfordshire is generated outside Oxford and a huge amount of that is school trips, this ‘green’ council is refusing to work with us to look at our proposals for a solution.”

The council has insisted they are working with parents to put “mitigations” in place and will report back in May.

Ms Leffman emphasised at the meeting that she “appreciates the stress” parents are under but argued the council was “not in a position” to make a decision on the moratorium.

Mr Walker, who has previously been critical of the council, said it was very “hard to swallow that it is not the Tory cabinet members pushing this through”.

Another parent, Annalisa Miller, said the meeting was “frustrating” as a decision has been pushed back until another meeting takes place on May 23.

Ms Miller said the council has “no desire to consider any other option than continuing with their plan to take away bus seats from 235 families- some of whom have no idea that the bus to their secondary school has been axed”.

Ms Miller said this specifically applies to the parents of year 6 children.

However, Ms Miller did praise the council’s Director of Children’s Services, Kevin Gordon, for approaching parents with a “constructive attitude” and for offering parents a “good amount of time” to listen to their concerns.

It is understood the cabinet did not give support to the moratorium, as they believed sufficient progress was already being made towards resolving issues which are the consequence of the planned withdrawal.

Speaking in the meeting, Ms Miller told Ms Leffman that was she disappointed the cabinet had not given their support to holding a moratorium, as instead they were choosing to “push” and “push” discussions which was not “viable in the medium term”.

An Oxfordshire County Council spokesman said: “Parents and Oxfordshire County Council have together progressed positive discussions with four schools as regards proposed changes to the spare seats scheme on school transport.

“The ongoing discussions aim to identify mitigations and potential solutions and have made some progress, but there is still work to be done.

"Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet received a report from the council’s People Scrutiny Committee and its working group on home to school transport and noted its recommendations.

"The cabinet heard about progress that has been made in recent weeks as regards proposed changes to the spare seats scheme on school transport for around 150 pupils at Wheatley Park School, Wood Green, Witney, Icknield School, Watlington and King Alfred’s, Wantage.

“For those affected by a reduction in spare seats, the county council will continue to work very closely with parents and schools to identify the options for pupils to make their journey to school.

“An update on this work will be provided to Cabinet when it discusses the response to the Scrutiny Committee report on May 23.”