Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Austerity could cull school transport eligibility
School transport eligibility is to be examined as a potential cost-saving measure ahead of next year’s North Lanarkshire Council budget.
Council leader Jim Logue says the authority’s education committee will this week be asked to approve the start of a public consultation exercise, on the possibility of changing from the current position of providing transport for pupils living one and two miles away from primary and secondary schools respectively, to those living more than two and three miles away from classes.
Airdrie Central councillor Logue says the move – which has been rejected in previous council budgets – is back under consideration as his minority Labour administration is preparing for an estimated £21million cost saving next year.
North Lanarkshire’s budget settlement for 2018-2019 will only be confirmed next month, when the Scottish Government budget is outlined at Holyrood.
Councillor Logue said: “With such a dire settlement expected, we have no choice but to put all difficult decisions on the table. We’ve sought to protect key services over previous years.
“I would urge the SNP group to pick up the phone to their colleagues and persuade them to do all they can to protect the local services of their constituents.”
His announcement comes a political row has broken out among North Lanarkshire’s three parties over this year’s budget process, after the SNP withdrew from the cross-party sounding board setting out information and savings options.
SNP councillors say their group has decided not to take part in the process after committing to “doing no deals with the Tories”– and will set their own “progressive budget without the influence of the party of austerity”.
Opposition leader David Stocks said:
“We’ll form our own budget, free from any Tory influence. Any suggestion that withdrawing from the sounding board is a withdrawal from the budget process is a complete fallacy.
“We can set our own budget with the assistance of council officers and we’ll do that over the coming weeks.
“Labour made the decision that they wanted to go into bed with the Tories and will now be in a position where their budget will be held hostage by the party of austerity.”
Conservative group leader Meghan Gallacher said: “It’s clear that the SNP is hiding away from the disastrous local government budget set by their Scottish Government.
“It’s not a lot to ask all groups to sit in the same room, to obtain vital information relating to the upcoming budget. The SNP need to stop this obsession with the ‘Tories being in bed with Labour’.”
SNP leader Councillor Stocks added of the forthcoming Holyrood settlement: “We don’t know the Scottish Government’s budget, and won’t know that until December.”