{"id":26170,"date":"2018-02-23T19:16:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T19:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=26170"},"modified":"2018-02-23T19:16:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T19:16:37","slug":"councillor-paying-parents-take-kids-school-bonkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/23\/councillor-paying-parents-take-kids-school-bonkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillor: &#039;Paying parents to take kids to school is bonkers&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PARENTS may be paid to take their children to school as the council tries to cut its spending on school buses and taxis next year.<br \/>\nThe Travel Support Allowance \u2013 branded \u201cbonkers\u201d by Conservative councillor Mike Phillips at <a href=\"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/23\/council-tax-go-5-cardiff\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thursday\u2019s budget meeting<\/a> \u2013 will be given to parents of children with additional learning needs who qualify for travel assistance.<br \/>\nPreviously, this assistance meant council-provided buses and taxis. However, parents will now be paid directly and told to make their own arrangements for getting their child to school.<br \/>\nThe money will be paid in advance each term and parents do not need to provide invoices or evidence on how they spend the funds.<br \/>\nThe only condition is that the child maintains \u201csatisfactory attendance\u201d at school.<br \/>\nThe changes form part of council plans to cut spending on school transport by \u00a3152,000 next year. According to estimates, this move would save \u00a342,000.<br \/>\nHowever, many councillors have questioned the change.<br \/>\nOn February 14, the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee \u2013 chaired by Labour councillor Lee Bridgeman \u2013 called on Cabinet to \u201creconsider\u201d the proposal.<br \/>\nIt would \u201chave an adverse effect on the environment, infrastructure, and families themselves, particularly those in poverty,\u201d members said in a letter to Cabinet member Chris Weaver.<br \/>\nBut despite these concerns, council members passed the budget without amendments on Thursday 22 February by 37 votes to 20.<br \/>\nCouncillors also voted down a Liberal Democrat\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/23\/council-says-no-free-school-transport-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proposal to give free travel to all secondary school pupils<\/a> living over 2.5 miles away from their school.<br \/>\nDuring this meeting, Coun Phillips criticised the plans.<br \/>\n\u201cYou wish to save money by cancelling some minibuses to schools and paying parents to drive their children in cars to those schools,\u201d he told Coun Weaver.<br \/>\n\u201cWhile cities around the world and around this country are trying to remove cars from the roads, we\u2019re going to increase traffic on the journeys to our schools. That\u2019s bonkers.\u201d<br \/>\nHowever, speaking on Friday, Coun Bridgeman was more optimistic about the changes.<br \/>\n\u201cThe committee did ask the cabinet to reconsider the proposal, but we have been assured that the department will monitor the young people&#8217;s attendance, which will hopefully eliminate the concerns of young people not attending school through no fault of their own,\u201d he told The Cardiffian.<br \/>\n\u201cIt was necessary for changes to be made to for the school transport system, and hopefully the new measures put in place will have the desired results,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nThe Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee \u201cwill be keeping a close eye on how the changes impact the young people involved,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARENTS may be paid to take their children to school as the council tries to cut its spending on school buses and taxis next year. The Travel Support Allowance \u2013 branded \u201cbonkers\u201d by Conservative councillor Mike Phillips at Thursday\u2019s budget meeting \u2013 will be given to parents of children with additional learning needs who qualify for travel assistance. Previously, this assistance meant council-provided buses and taxis. However, parents will now be paid directly and told to make their own arrangements [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":26194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5712,5713,929,5714,52,1328,2479,5715,5716,5717,5718],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-26170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-201819-budget","tag-additional-learning-needs","tag-budget","tag-budget-meeting","tag-cardiff-council","tag-cardiff-council-budget","tag-chris-weaver","tag-lee-bridgeman","tag-mike-phillips","tag-school-transport","tag-travel-support-allowance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Councillor: &#039;Paying parents to take kids to school is bonkers&#039; - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/23\/councillor-paying-parents-take-kids-school-bonkers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Councillor: &#039;Paying parents to take kids to school is bonkers&#039; - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PARENTS may be paid to take their children to school as the council tries to cut its spending on school buses and taxis next year. The Travel Support Allowance \u2013 branded \u201cbonkers\u201d by Conservative councillor Mike Phillips at Thursday\u2019s budget meeting \u2013 will be given to parents of children with additional learning needs who qualify for travel assistance. Previously, this assistance meant council-provided buses and taxis. 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