Issue - meetings

Councillor Hopton was permitted to at the Chair’s discretion to address the committee on two issues.

Councillor Hopton raised concerns about the lack of a policy requiring school transport buses to have lap belts. The school bus provided for children travelling to Askham Richard school did not have lap belts. Subsequently nine out of twenty children travelled by car as their parents refused to let them travel on a bus without lap belts. This went against City of York Council policy. This problem had been raised before but parents had been told that there was no legal requirements for buses to have lap belts, but the parents were not satisfied with this response. Councillor Hopton requested that the Executive Member look at the Local Authority’s policy on school transport or lap belts.

Councillor Hopton raised concerns about parking problems around St Mary’s Primary School. Recently a playgroup had transferred opposite the school. There were 105 children at the school, and fulltime and peripatetic staff. Few were from Askham Richard and some came by bus, and some by car. Parked cars had been a problem to villagers. There had been damage to grass verges and the village was a conservation area. Officers from Traffic had tried to resolve these problems before. At a planning stage parking issues had been raised and dismissed. Councillor Hopton requested that the Executive Member and Officers from Education follow this up as a priority, and had two suggestions:

·        The car park at Askham Bryan College should be used as a transition point for children boarding the bus.

·        Or land should be provided at the school for a car park. School buses could also use this facility.