South Lanarkshire residents react with fury over loss of free school transport

South Lanarkshire Council has said that free transportation to mainstream secondary schools is to move to the statutory arrangements used by other councils.

That means only secondary pupils who live more than three miles from school will continue to get free transport paid for using South Lanarkshire Council funds.

The new limit will not apply until August 2025, which will allow parents and carers time to make alternative arrangements.

However, anger erupted locally when it was discovered that the figure for those rejecting these proposals and who made their position clear during the consultation, was 84 per cent against, 13 per cent for the proposal, and three per cent were undecided.

The social media post on the council’s Facebook page has hundreds of negative comments, including one which said: “What was the point in having a survey if they were just going to disregard all the dangers and concerns parents have. Absolute disgrace from South Lanarkshire Council again, shocking but not surprised!”

The council says they will now progress work to mitigate the impact of the new qualifying distance for accelerating active travel interventions, collaboration with parents and communities and taking forward dialogue with the bus sector and potential community transport operators.

A web post states: “The council will also promote sustainable transport through planning policy to help create better connected communities and reaffirm its commitment to fair funding for local government.

“There will be no changes to current arrangements for any ASN pupils, and primary school pupils will continue to qualify for free transport if they live more than one mile from their catchment school.”

The new arrangements were agreed at the council’s Executive Committee last week.

Lynn Sherry, Head of Education, said: “The report that has been approved by elected members noted the reasons behind the proposals, in particular pressures on the budget for education, and indeed the wider council budget.

“Reducing the council’s costs by increasing the distance criteria for secondary pupils will mean that the impact of budget cuts that directly affect pupils' learning and classroom resources can be lessened.”

Ms Sherry added: “There was an extensive consultation process, and elected members were supplied with full feedback received. While the consultation showed that the proposals were viewed unfavourably by a majority of those parents who responded, this was to be expected given the outcome would be the removal of free transportation from some pupils.

“The report approved by elected members also noted that changing the distance criteria for secondary school pupils to meet statutory requirements would bring South Lanarkshire into line with most other councils in Scotland.

“Indeed, by maintaining current shorter distance criteria for primary school pupils, South Lanarkshire will continue to provide a more generous free transportation policy than most councils.”