LEADING members of a council have been accused of “breaking up communities”, putting children’s safety at risk and segregating education by income as they pushed forward a move to restrict free home to school transport to those attending the nearest school.

Headteachers, governors, parents and community leaders lined up at County Hall in Northallerton to urge North Yorkshire Council’s executive to drop the proposal to reduce provision to that which is legally required which could save the council £3m.

The proposal follows the school transport becoming the third largest item of expenditure for the authority at £51m a year, behind adult social care and waste management, more than doubling since 2018/19.

In a highly unusual move, the Conservative-run authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, opened the meeting with a short speech to underline the council’s projected £48m annual shortfall over the next four years.

He said while the Labour government had won the election on a platform of change it remained unlikely that the council’s financial “context” would change significantly, and it was probable the schools’ Rural Support Grant would be removed.

Coun Les said: “We will need to proceed as if major savings will still be needed until somebody in Government tells us differently.

“If our policies and procedures are out of step with Government guidance, or out of step with what most other councils are doing, and that is costing us more to deliver services, then we will need a very convincing argument indeed to continue with that extra expense.”

However, Jo Colledge, Ingleton Primary School’s headteacher, said families living in Craven villages were living in fear about the changes, which would be phased in over seven years.

Gareth Whitaker, headteacher of Settle College, said being forced to chose a school on transport costs rather than educational preference undermined the principle of educational freedom and that every child who travelled to their nearest school in Cumbria instead of Settle College would represent a financial blow.

He said the authority’s proposals had the potential to segregate education by income, rather than by choice or merit, and simply shifted the financial burden onto families.

Mr Whitaker said: “It’s not just about proximity, it’s about quality of education and how a community has flourished around this institution.

“However, the council’s proposals to requite families to pay for school transport could impose a financial burden many cannot bear, amounting to £2,000 annually for two children.”

Speaking on behalf of families in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, Ian Dawson, a governor at Richmond School, said the proposals would mean children travelling over perilous high routes in winter and the loss of 20 students represented a £120,000 funding cut, equal to the salary of four teaching staff.

The meeting was told the school would see a substantial cut in the breadth of curriculum, end school-based post-16 education in the area, undermine the retention of teachers and be a further reason for families to leave Dales villages.

However, the meeting heard leading members say they took comfort the council was using its discretionary powers to extend the eligibility for travel assistance for secondary age pupils from low income families to attend one of their three nearest suitable schools, provided it was more than two miles but not more than 12 miles from their home.

They emphasised alternative ways of saving money on the few non-statutory services the council runs would be “extremely unpalatable” for families and that the authority had a duty to have a balanced budget.

Responding to the safety concerns, the authority’s executive member for education, Councillor Annabel Wilkinson, said all routes used to take pupils to school would all be risk assessed.

Executive member Michael Harrison said while he recognised the litany of concerns that had been raised, the implications for the council losing control of its financial future would be enormous for any discretionary spend the authority had.

Ahead of the executive unanimously approving the proposal for consideration by a full meeting of the authority later this month, he said: “We are the ones that have to have a budget that stops this council going bust.”