0

Consultation on free transport for older students ends


August 30, 2018 - 1278 views

A public consultation on controversial plans to potentially end free public transport for the over 16 in full time education has just come to a close and Conwy County Borough Council will be reporting back their findings to the cabinet in the Autumn.

The consultation which has been open for a number of weeks sought feedback from the student community and saw verbal protests in the local press from representitives at Coleg Llandrillo and mature students potentially effected by any future changes to the system.

The Council has been providing free education transport for many years for learners over 16 years old who attend schools or designated colleges.  However, providing free education transport for learners over 16 is a discretionary service that Conwy has continued to provide when the majority of other Local Authorities in Wales have stopped. 

As it is not a statutory requirement and the Welsh Government provides no money to fund this, money has to be found from elsewhere in the existing education budget.   This discretionary service costs Conwy £420,000 per annum and increases each year with inflation. Other options have been identified to allow the service to be maintained, but this would mean learners making a contribution towards the cost. 

Any options that come out of evaluating the consultation responses will go through the democratic process with any decisions made not coming into force until September 2020 at the earliest.