Suffolk: School Transport Revised
10 July 2012, 05:00 | Updated: 10 July 2012, 11:45
With lots more free schools and academies opening - Suffolk County Council is looking today at how it'll affect transport for pupils.
Responses from more than 300 people and nine public meetings, which mainly raised concerns that original proposals would limit school choice, have been used to refine the plans to make them more workable.
The council is now looking at changing the catchment area boundries in some places to decide which children get free buses
If it goes ahead, the new plans would mean:
Haverhill/Clare/Sudbury - Transport Priority Areas (TPAs) would be used but adjusted to follow primary school catchment boundaries.
Mildenhall.Brandon - TPAs would be used but adjusted to follow primary school boundaries with children living in Lakenheath being eligible for travel to either school
Leiston/Saxmundham - The local authority would continue offering eligible children free transport to Leiston High School based on the school's catchment area. Free transport will only e offered to the free school if it is an eligible child's nearest school
Beccles - As the two sites are so close free transport would be offered to both sa long as the child meets eligibility criteria.
Councillor Graham Newman, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for education and young people, is telling Heart you'll need to double check how it affects you when it's brought in next year: