FAMILIES have just more than a week to give their views on the future provision of home to school transport across Craven and North Yorkshire.

The consultation, which asks residents to comment on proposals regarding charges and the use of accessible vehicles, will close on Sunday, April 19.

In response to a legal challenge, North Yorkshire County Council last year suspended the practice of offering spare seats for a charge on most of its home to school services.

Most non-entitled pupils and post-16 students had therefore been travelling for free since September, prior to the current lockdown measures due to coronavirus. But this loss of income, says the council, which is facing severe financial pressures, is not sustainable in the long term.

The authority says it is also unable to carry the additional annual £2.7million it would cost to make all home to school transport accessible for children with mobility issues.

Currently, most mainstream home to school transport is not accessible as separate arrangements are made for entitled pupils with mobility needs. It says it already spends more than £24million providing home to school transport, and that the ‘significant’ increase would have a serious and negative impact on other council services.

But, as the Government has recently provided exemptions for a period of time for school transport services that carry fewer than 20 per cent of fare-paying passengers, the council is consulting on a new range of options, including the re-introduction of charges from September for non-entitled and post 16 pupils.

It is proposing to transport only eligible pupils, and to charge for spare seats where it is legal to do so – but to not offer the use of spare seats on vehicles where it would not be lawful to charge.

It is also proposing to charge where it is legal to charge and allow other spare seats to be used for free; and to charge where it is legal to charge and allow other spare seats to be used for free until July 2021, from then charge for spare seats where it is legal to charge.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive member for access and transport, said: “We would like all our home to school transport vehicles to be accessible, but the cost at the present time and in the legal timescale is prohibitive. It is simply not affordable given the very great pressures on our budget and the fact we still have £19million in savings to find overall. It is, of course, something we will work to provide through our contractors in the longer term.

“However, we know that our long tradition of enabling non-entitled and post-16 pupils to pay for spare seats on home to school transport is very popular and we wish to continue this tradition in some form, for as long as possible. I would urge families who use home to school transport to have their say on changes that will affect them.”

The results of the consultation will be reported to the Executive in May. To take part, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/home-to-school-transport-consultation