Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda. A list of general personal interests previously declared are attached.

The Chair invited Members to declare at this point any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.  No interests were declared in addition to the standing list of general personal interests attached to the agenda.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 6 December 2006.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 December 2006 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committees remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Monday 26 February 2007 at 5.00pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report is to ask Members to consider the draft final report of the scrutiny review into home to school transport contracts in York.

Members received a report which asked them to consider a draft report arising from the Committee’s scrutiny review into home to school transport contracts in York.  Subject to any amendments they might wish to make, the report would then go forward to the Scrutiny Management Committee (SMC) as the final report of the Education Scrutiny Committee on this topic.

After discussing in detail the draft report attached at Annex A and seeking further information from the Principal Education Officer, Access Team, Members agreed the following amendments:

Paragraph 5 – after the words ‘important issues are’, insert a colon and split the rest of the sentence into two sub-paragraphs, covering a) pupil behaviour and b) problems in ensuring pupils wear seatbelts.

Paragraph 11 – after the first sub-paragraph, include an additional paragraph on the petition presented at Council by Cllr Bradley (wording to be supplied to the Scrutiny Officer by the Chair).

Recommendation 1 – in financial implications, include a paragraph indicating that the current contractor is willing to install lap seatbelts at a cost of £4k to £5k but would be seeking a negotiable one-off contribution from the Council towards these costs.

Recommendation 2 – insert the words ‘and functioning at all times’ after ‘installed’ in sub-paragraph b).  In financial implications, refer to the potential 25% cost increase if lap seatbelts are fitted immediately to all vehicles.

Recommendation 3 – in the financial implications, refer to the potential for reduced costs if longer contracts can be offered.

Recommendation 4 – at the word ‘contracts’ in the third line, add a footnote making reference to the description of good behaviour contracts in paragraph 14 of the report.

Recommendation 5 – insert the word ‘high’ after ‘same’ in the first line.

The Chair thanked the Scrutiny Officer, on behalf of the Committee, for a clear and concise report.  Thanks were also offered to those people from outside the Council who had been involved in gathering information for the report, particularly parents of school students.  They would be kept involved of the progress of the report to Executive and copies of the final version would be circulated to them.

RESOLVED: That, subject to the above amendments, the report be approved for submission to Scrutiny Management Committee as the final report of the Education Scrutiny Committee on home to school transport.

REASON:      So that the final report reflects Members’ views and to enable the Committee’s recommendations to be referred to the Executive, via SMC.