Revealed: Suffolk Schools most affected by County Council’s transport proposals

Suffolk County Council’s cabinet yesterday voted to consult on a significant reduction to their financial support for home to school transport.

This would leave thousands of children across the county with either no free transport or transport to another school they do not attend or want to attend.

This is one of those changes that impacts certain areas much more than others. The school most affected is Thurston Community College where most of their students will lose transport. Today its principal Helen Wilson described the proposals as “rural discrimination”.

Her school is particularly affected due to the nearby Ixworth Free School which has been controversial since before it opened. Most parents in the area have voted with their feet and decided to send their children to Thurston resulting in the Ixworth having many empty places. A recent Ofsted inspection said Ixworth required improvement.

However it was unclear until yesterday which other schools were most affected and the list is perhaps surprising.

The list was only revealed after Rachel Gooch who is a governor in the Thurston area heard reference to an unpublished appendix in the equalities impact assessment for these proposals:

Rachel followed this up by calling some of the schools on this list who seemed completely unaware of the impact:

It seems unfortunate that this list was not published and that Suffolk County Council did not mention this to the affected schools.

Instead schools have had a less than helpful letter from Portfolio holder for Education Gordon Jones saying:

This is a shared challenge and we need to work together to find solutions to ensure that Suffolk has a sustainable travel policy for the future.

During the meeting Cllr Jones suggested schools might pay for transport from their own already over-stretched funding. Perhaps this is what he meant by working together.