1 February - School transport costs are rising
Listening to a recording of Council meeting while driving
is not yet against the law and in any case the M25 and M4 traffic was remarkably light
on Saturday morning. However, I learned little of general interest.
School Transport for Special Educational Needs Children was perhaps an exception
and has an impact on the taxpayers’ pocket which may not be immediately apparent
to them. Demand constantly rises above the budget and fuel costs have been
rising. I am not sure what it says about rates of pay but Bexley’s drivers are lost to
Amazon who are reputed to pay peanuts.
One mitigation is to not to send children long distances and Cabinet
Member Richard Diment is working on that. He has also managed to lay his hands
on an extra £2·3 million for the coming year and he is optimistic that the
Department for Education will cough up more.
Councillor Andy Dourmoush (Conservative, Longlands) is not one for platitudes so he asked
exactly how some of the projected savings could be achieved and cast doubt on
the inflation assumption of 2·76%. Each percentage point above that will
cost £269,000. “It doesn’t add up.”
The Council Officer said the assumptions are being revised and a rate just under
5% is likely to be adopted. I sometimes think that only Councillor Dourmoush is
able to look beneath the reassuring headlines.