SCRAPPING free school bus passes for around 300 pupils is a “tough” decision forced by funding cuts, the councillor responsible has said. 

Changes to a home to school transport policy will mean, from September next year, primary pupils, aged from four to 11, will only be entitled to free travel if they live two miles or more from their nearest, or suitable, school and for secondary pupils it will be three or more miles. 

At present Monmouthshire County Council provides free bus passes for primary pupils who live 1.5 miles from their nearest, or suitable, school and from two miles for secondary pupils but its cabinet has agreed to switch to the Welsh Government’s statutory distances on cost grounds. 

Councillor Martyn Groucutt, the Labour cabinet member for education, said the council has faced “year on year” reductions in funding, “which will not change this financial year”, and said “tough financial decisions have to be taken.” 

He acknowledged the change will impact some 300 pupils, of the 2,800 it currently provides transport for, but changing the eligibility could be better than “further cuts to school budgets”. 

The change will save the council nearly £700,000 next year, with its forecast school transport cost for the current 2024/25 financial year being is £5,726,603 against a budget allocation of £5,125,025. It also spends a further £2.4m on transport for pupils with additional learning needs. 

Cllr Groucutt said the saving works out as reducing the expected deficit in transport costs. 

The council intends that those denied free transport will walk to school but Conservative opposition leader, Cllr Richard John, questioned the safety of that proposal. 

“Pupils in some rural communities will have to walk up to six miles along rural roads, including in the dark during winter, do you really think that is safe?” asked the councillor who represents Mitchell Troy and Trellech. 

Cllr Groucutt said the council’s road safety officer, who is independent of the children and young people’s directorate, will assess walking routes if there are concerns and free transport will be provided if they aren’t considered safe. 

Cllr John also questioned if the council had considered its recognition of a climate emergency, and the potential rise in carbon emissions from more children being driven to school, in its decision. 

Cllr Groucutt said it had been acknowledged there could be an increase in car journeys but he said the council hadn’t factored in a reduction in emissions from school buses. 

He told Cllr John, who is in his early 40s, he preferred his written question which asked “has the council ditched its climate commitments to save a couple of bob” and added “you don’t look old enough to remember decimalization to me”. 

But Cllr Groucutt said the change will move Monmouthshire into line with 18 other Welsh authorities, including all other rural authorities and said only Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent would continue with a more generous offer than the statutory distance. 

He also said the council will continue to follow the national policy of providing school children with passes to use public service buses, as it has done since last year, and dismissed safety fears. He said none of the 12 safeguarding issues around school transport raised in the past year related to public service buses. 

The cabinet has also agreed where it is unable to secure a bus operator, or if it is the best financial options, it will offer parents a personal transport budget to take their children to and from school. This proposal will apply to all, including pupils with Additional Learning Needs.  

Parents or guardian will be offered 45p per mile and £10 an hour for the return journey, to be assessed by the council’s commissioning team but no one will be forced to accept the offer.