Brummie Cabbie wrote:
A council may have to pay up to £80 a day for taxis to take a boy five miles to a school he does not want to go to.
£400 a week, tempted.
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| Author: | Brummie Cabbie [ Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Council's '£80 a day' School Taxi |
Council's '£80 a day' School Taxi 18 June 2009 A council may have to pay up to £80 a day for taxis to take a boy five miles to a school he does not want to go to. The boy, who is 11 and from West Sussex, wanted to go to Downlands Community School, but lives just outside its catchment area. A school bus to Downlands stops outside his house, but he was given a place at another school. West Sussex County Council said it was currently examining the issue of travel and access to learning. The 11-year-old, called Daniel, lives in Edburton, a hamlet of 12 houses. The only school bus to stop in his street goes to Downlands Community School in the village of Hassocks, but his street is just outside the catchment area for this school. He lives 4.6 miles from Steyning Grammar School, where he has been given a place for September. The council is obliged by law to provide transport because he lives over the statutory walking distance for a child aged eight or over - which is three miles. 'Concerned' West Sussex County Council told Daniel's parents it would tender Daniel's journey to approved taxi firms in order to get value for money. But Daniel's father, Jeremy Holt, said he and his wife asked local taxi firms whether they would tender and only one firm on the council's approved list said it would bid for the journey, at a cost of £80 per day. He said the decision not to allow his son to attend Downlands Community School defied common sense. "The people at the council who think this should be sorted out don't have the authority to sort it. "The people who do have the authority want to stick to the policy rather than save money for the taxpayer. "Our son would rather go to school on the school bus that stops outside our house than get a taxi, which is a bizarre way to go to school. "He's concerned about it." The family calculated that the cost of taxis for Daniel over five years of secondary school would be £78,000. They issued a Freedom of Information Act request to West Sussex County Council to find out how much money it had spent on taxis for school children each year since 2004-05. The answer showed the amount spent had been rising slowly, from £4,301,629 in 2004-05 to £5,588,500 in 2008-09. Most of this money is spent on providing taxis for children with special needs, but last year 15.5% of taxi costs were for children with no special needs. This amounted to £864,615 last year. Cllr Peter Griffiths, West Sussex County Council member for Education, said in a statement that few children from outside the catchment area for Downlands Community School could be admitted to the school. "The family took their case to an independent appeal panel and were unsuccessful in persuading the panel that we had acted unreasonably or had made a mistake in their case. "The panel also concluded that their case wasn't sufficient to outweigh the problems further similar admissions would cause to the school. "The clerk to the appeal panel will have written to the parents explaining why they were unsuccessful in their particular circumstances." Source; BBC New UK |
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| Author: | Sussex [ Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:45 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Council's '£80 a day' School Taxi |
Brummie Cabbie wrote: A council may have to pay up to £80 a day for taxis to take a boy five miles to a school he does not want to go to.
£400 a week, tempted.
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