A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.
Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.
Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.
Minutes:
A number of members of the public wished to make a statement to the Committee regarding the Home to School Transport item.
Jemma Ellison, Chair of Governors from St. Mary’s RC Primary School made the point that the proposed changes would have a detrimental effect on children. She suggested that both going to a different school to siblings and a lack of continuity as a result of changing schools would lead to poor educational outcomes for those children affected. She added that the report had suggested that the people impacted by the proposed changes were from mainly affluent backgrounds. It was argued that this was inaccurate and that a large number of people from poorer backgrounds would be disadvantaged by the proposed changes too.
Margaret Charlton explained that she felt that the proposed changes would result in the erosion of Christian values in society. Furthermore, it was argued that the proposed changes to post 16 mainstream travel would have a negative impact on social mobility.
Edward McHugh, Headteacher at St. Thomas More Catholic High School, commented that the summary of the consultation did not provide an accurate picture. Indeed, he contended that the process was flawed in length, having not provided the full 28 day period to his respective school. He also noted that the relevant documents were not available in Polish until half way through the consultation process, disadvantaging a number of parents at St. Thomas More. Edward McHugh also asserted that there were alternatives available to the Council in terms of saving money that would not have the unintended consequences that the proposed changes would have. He requested that the Council should explore these possibilities further.
Rachel White, a parent with a child at St. Thomas More Catholic High School, made the point that faith schools saved money for Cheshire East by investing their own funds into areas such as the maintenance of buildings. It was suggested therefore that it could be a false economy to withdraw travel support as money would have to be spent elsewhere. Furthermore, she argued that parental choice in terms of educational setting was very important and that this should not be taken away.
Kieran Kelly, Headteacher at St. Nicholas Catholic High School, Northwich, stated that although his respective school was situated in Cheshire West and Chester, it had served Cheshire East Children for a number of years. With this in mind, he expressed his disappointment at not being contacted during the consultation process. He asserted that the proposed changes would have a significant impact on the volume of traffic in particular areas as an increasing number of parents would have to transport their children using a car. It was queried whether the Cheshire East had undertaken an independent survey to analyse the impact of this increase in traffic. As a final point, attention was drawn to the fact that Cheshire East policy acknowledged that the catchment areas for faith schools were not based on a zoned geographical area but rather around parishes. He queried whether this policy had changed and if so when did it change given that admission arrangements for 2012-13 were already published and had been accepted by the Council without any indication that transport would not be provided as it was at present.
Heidi Reid, attending as a representative of a number of Bollington parents, made the point that under the proposed changes ‘cost’ would become an increasing factor when making a choice in educational settings. She suggested that this should never be the case. Additionally, it was noted that there would be no subsidised safe route for Bollington to Tytherington if the bus route was taken away under the proposed changes. She suggested that Cheshire East should look at this issue in more detail.