‘Reluctant changes’ agreed for learner transport in face of funding issues

The Cabinet of Bridgend County Borough Council has agreed to make ‘reluctant changes’ to learner transport services in the face of rising costs, falling budgets and an urgent need to save money.

With costs rising from £6m in 2020-21 to £10.4m by 2023-24 and a projected overspend of £1.2m in the current financial year due to increased demand, the council has said it has now become impossible to offer what was previously one of the most generous levels of learner transport provision in Wales.

As a result, Cabinet have agreed that starting from September 2025, the following changes will be made:

• Where a safe walking route has been identified, qualifying distances for school transport will change to the statutory limits set by Welsh Government of 2 miles for primary school pupils, and 3 miles for secondary school pupils.
• In future, pupils who have had eligibility for free school transport passed on by an older sibling (under the former qualifying distances of 1.5 miles for primary school pupils and 2 miles for secondary school pupils) will no longer be entitled to receive the same provision.
• Free transport for nursery pupils and post-16 learners will no longer be available, but will continue for those attending Welsh-medium and faith schools who live beyond the qualifying distances.

Cabinet opted to defer a further proposal - to offer parents and carers of pupils with additional learning needs ‘personal transport budgets’ for making their own arrangements to transport children to school - in order to allow further research to be carried out.

“We have previously warned that after 14 consecutive years of carefully managing shrinking resources and having to deal with an overall reduction in our funding of £88.4m, the council has been fast approaching a point where it is not going to be possible to save money while also shielding people from feeling the full impact of increasingly significant cuts.

“Unfortunately, that point has now arrived, and learner transport is one of the areas that has been affected. While nobody wants to make reductions to a service such as this, the bottom line is that we can no longer afford to offer it at the level that people have become accustomed to.

“The reality that we must face is that all UK councils are experiencing similar difficulties, and until the national funding crisis can be resolved, further reluctant changes to popular council services such as this are sadly going to be inevitable.”

- Council Leader John Spanswick

Councillor Martyn Jones, Cabinet Member for Education and Youth Services, said: “Before making this decision, we carried out extensive consultation in order to fully understand the impact of the proposals, and I want to thank everyone who took part in that process.

“This is clearly an issue which people have strong opinions about. I fully appreciate the depth of feeling that has been expressed, and share in the public concern.

“Nobody wants to make reductions to a popular and well-used service such as this, but given the sheer scale of the financial challenges that we, like all councils, are facing, we also have a responsibility to face up to the reality of the situation, and understand that these changes are driven by affordability and necessity.

“I have already made a commitment to Scrutiny members that, as the Cabinet member responsible for the education portfolio, I will be monitoring the impact of this decision upon children, young people, families and the wider community, and will be regularly reviewing it alongside other reluctant budget reductions.

“In the meantime, I can assure you that we remain firmly focused upon doing all that we can, with all of the resources that remain available to us, to support our young learners in these most difficult of times.”