Families in North Yorkshire say they will be forced to pay over £800 a year after the council ended free school bus funding for pupils attending Ripon Grammar School, despite buses still running to Outwood Academy directly opposite.
Under government rules, secondary pupils are entitled to free transport if they live more than three miles (5km) from their nearest school. Until recently, North Yorkshire Council provided free bus passes for eligible pupils travelling to both Ripon Grammar School and Outwood Academy.
However, following a policy change last year aimed at saving more than £4m, the council now only covers journeys to the closest school. Officials measured the distance from villages south of Ripon and ruled that Outwood Academy was 194ft (59m) closer than Ripon Grammar. Parents were told the authority would therefore no longer fund transport to the Grammar.
One parent described the decision as “ludicrous,” pointing out that the two schools are opposite each other and pupils share the same buses, using identical stops and drop-off points.
Cathee, from Bishop Monkton, said her son had a free pass to Ripon Grammar, but her daughter Lainey, who starts at the same school this term, has been refused under the new rules.
“The bus pass is over £800 a year, so we have five years of that, which is £4,000. That’s a lot, especially when you haven’t budgeted for that,” she said.
Lainey admitted the row had clouded her summer: “When my mum and dad found out, they spent most of their time upstairs on the computer figuring out what they are going to do to let me have a bus pass. It caused a lot of stress in the family.”
Other families in Bishop Monkton face the same issue. Martha, 11, who recently passed the entrance exam to attend Ripon Grammar, will follow her siblings there but unlike them, her parents must pay for her travel. Her mother Rebecca said: “Both children going to Ripon Grammar School and Outwood Academy, they get on the same bus and it picks up at the same stops and drops at a shared bus park between the two schools. To me, I couldn’t see there was any difference in distance from our house to either school.”
North Yorkshire Council defended the decision, citing financial pressures. Amanda Fielding, assistant director for inclusion, said: “Our home to school transport policy is designed to be fair and consistent for families across North Yorkshire. Unfortunately, we simply cannot afford to operate a more generous policy due to the acute financial position we are in.”
The council confirmed that pupils who previously received free bus passes would not be affected. Families living north of Ripon remain entitled to free transport to either school.
