Plans to restrict free school transport eligibility scrapped by North Lanarkshire council

Plans to restrict the number of North Lanarkshire primary pupils eligible for free school transport have been formally scrapped by the council.

Council leader Jim Logue presented a motion at a full council meeting confirming that changes such as the introduction of charges for collecting garden waste would allow the continued provision of transport for pupils who live within one mile of their school.

Prior to the meeting the council had announced its intentions in a statement issued to the press.

SNP group leader Councillor Tracy Carragher (Coatbridge South) said: “Obviously this council and the children this decision would have affected are grateful that finally the leader of the council has decided to reverse his decision and not make changes to primary school transport.

“I just want to highlight it was a decision from the Labour group and they have used a committee to bring in charges for garden waste which has now covered this.

“It was highlighted at that committee that that decision was made in our budget in February 2024 and it was, and it could have been taken then by the Labour group to reverse this decision on primary school transport. But it wasn’t.”

She went on to accuse the Labour group of playing games, allowing a lot of unnecessary anguish for parents and children, and that parents may have gone to their employers to change shift patterns.

Councillor Carragher said that despite press statements to the contrary, parents had not been listened to as the decision would not have been made in the first place.

She later reaffirmed her group’s commitment to ensure the decision on secondary school transport would similarly be reversed in the next budget.

Councillor Logue rejected claims that the issue had been personalised, saying that it was the administration which ordered the announcement, adding that he was a “mere figurehead” and there was no presidential effect at work in the council.

With regard to the prior statement of intent he added that this was not unique in any governance activity and takes place at councils and other bodies all over the UK and elsewhere, and that during the short-lived SNP administration of 2022 then leader Jordan Linden had announced the intention to re-purpose tower blocks as housing for refugees without objections.

Councillor Logue also denied playing party politics, saying instead he had played “arithmetic politics” with the decision to implement garden waste charges which would generate an income of around £1.5m, which in turn would allow for the position on primary school transport to be revised,

“I thought that made financial sense and sense in terms of representations that had been made.”

The council unanimously agreed to the recommendations.