Public transport is failing rural youth: a shake-up is long overdue

Parents of school-age children may well recognise the precarity of rural home-to-school transport. When Paul Dale got in touch from School Transport Action Group, set up by parents to fight a new policy from North Yorkshire Council, I knew where he was coming from.

- Nicola Chester

Not long after parents received confirmation of their child’s chosen school place last year, North Yorkshire Council dealt a blow, affecting all parents in the area, too. A dividing line was drawn through a village in order to distribute free bus passes to the child’s nearest school only, not their catchment school of choice, which, in one case, is just six metres in the other direction.

Kathy Walker told The Yorkshire Post, “It’s been a real shock.” Her sister, a GP in Selby, is contemplating reducing her hours so she can drive and collect her children from school. Paul Dale calls the seven-year decision “an attack on rural villages”. Councillor Andrew Lee, who voted for the policy, offered some hope, explaining “the council is under a lot of pressure to make savings... but we need to make sure we're not just following policy for the sake of it.”