Cabinet forced to defer critical changes to Home to School Transport

Lib Dems have persuaded the Tory controlled County Council to undertake a massive u-turn and defer a flagship budget cut to Home to School Transport. Under the proposals students faced massive changes to transport entitlements and some faced fees of over £400 per year. If entitlement changes were agreed this would have restricted transport to nearest available school even if that school was over the County boundary.

Leader of the Opposition, Simon Galton said: "I am delighted that the Tories listened to us. What they had proposed had no public support and it was clear that this was a cut too far.

We have spent a lot of time raising this issue, we told residents they needed to respond or risk losing the services and we then pointed out the level of public opposition. Lesley Pendleton attacked us on this and I am hopeful she will acknowledge we were right all along.

I think that the intention to charge the full commercial cost when 80% of respondents have said they are opposed to this increase was a key issue that the Liberal Democrats raised. As we said last week Families are struggling at the moment and the proposed increase to £430 per student is massive.

Lesley Pendleton needs to accept that a lot of people in Leicestershire agree with Liberal Democrats that these proposals are unacceptable."