CHILDREN who have had to move home due to domestic violence will no longer receive free school bus passes in a Merseyside borough.
But senior officers at Knowsley Council, many of whom take home six-figure salaries, have been exempted from a round of transport cuts.
Further measures agreed by the council cabinet include withdrawing transport from GCSE year pupils who have moved home and now live more than three miles from their school.
Pupils travelling to faith schools instead of the nearest one to home will also be left out. The cuts will save the council less than £14,000 in the first year, and leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group Cllr Ian Smith has branded the move an “outrage”.
Cllr Smith said: “Some of this report is at best insensitive and at worst outrageous. Suggesting that children who have moved home because of domestic violence should have their funding withdrawn is, I can only say, an outrage.
“The council are always banging on about how important it is for pupils in Years 10 and 11 to get to school, but are withdrawing a total of £3,000 from this specific group.”
The borough still languishes towards the bottom of GCSE results tables, and Cllr Smith said removing transport was not likely to encourage greater participation.
What has angered the Prescot-based councillor is a clause in the appendix to the cabinet report.
It says: “Expenditure on car user allowance and lease cars for senior managers are excluded from the review in the interests of retaining a manageable sized review.”
Cllr Smith said: “The council spent £47,000 on attending the Labour Party conference last year in Manchester. This year it is on the South Coast and money has been allocated yet again.
“But yet they are prepared to make these minor savings for children’s transport that will impact on 600 families.”
Cllr Graham Wright, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said the changes would only take effect from September and that a review into councillors’ car allowances was scheduled for the end of the year.
He added: “A number of cost saving actions were agreed by cabinet last week. Taken together, all of those savings will make a significant contribution towards helping the council maintain services for residents within available budgets.”
“Families of pupils already claiming support will not be affected by the changes.”
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