Nottinghamshire parents have been left ‘furious’ and ‘disappointed’ after their children’s transport to faith schools was axed.
Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council has been reviewing its discretionary bus service that serves more than 500 pupils attending Catholic and Church of England schools.
Currently, 520 pupils attending these faith schools travel there on council-subsidised transport, with parents covering around 20 per cent of the cost and the council paying the remaining 80 per cent.
It costs the authority around £1 million a year to run the service, with the council estimating the cost over the next six years would be up to £7.5 million.
However, in a recent cabinet meeting, the authority agreed to end its discretionary transport to faith schools from September 2027 after it was found to be facing “significant financial pressure” across its departments, where any savings could help the council achieve its multi-million-pound savings plan.
Councillor James Rawson (Ref) said: “It doesn’t feel right that the majority have to pay for the minority. The majority have got uniform costs, and the majority have got travel costs.”
Cllr Martin Wright (Ref) said: “The authority faces financial issues around statutory services, which we have no option but to provide. As more children are diagnosed than ever with an increasing requirement for SEND provision throughout the county, it comes at great cost.
“Secondly, the number of children placed in the care of the local authority increases substantially year on year. The cost of accommodating one child in a children’s home can be as much as £250,000 per annum.”
Cllr Rory Green (Ref) said the decision had “weighed on us all very heavily”, adding: “I even think there’s an opportunity here for the Church… As someone who is a Christian, I have toiled with this for weeks.
“It is not the state’s responsibility to drive your child to school based on your choice of school. I say that not in an aggressive way but in a peaceful way.”
Hannah Jones, 42, from Nuthall, is a single parent and will have two children attending Bluecoat Academy Wollaton by September 2027, when the council’s proposals would come into effect.
Speaking on the transport cuts, she said she was “extremely disappointed” by the decision and that it would have a “significant impact” on her family.
She said her son’s usual 15-minute journey to school will now take around 50 minutes each way, requiring two separate public buses, which will be “considerably more difficult and complicated”.
“I fully understand the council faces financial pressures and difficult decisions sometimes have to be made. However, removing the entire service without finding a way to retain at least some transport options is extremely disappointing,” she said.
Ms Jones believes no “meaningful compromise” was realistically considered by the council, such as reduced services or revised routes, adding: “It’s difficult not to feel that this was a predetermined decision.”
One Giltbrook mum, who asked not to be named, said she was ‘furious’ over the cuts, which will now impact her son travelling to a school that will have its bus route scrapped.
Due to the changes, she is considering moving her son, who has already made friends at his school, to a different school. She is also thinking about moving her younger daughter to a different primary school soon to ensure she can make friends before moving up to secondary school.
She said: “The poorest place to be is the middle of the road, which we are… I pay a hell of a lot of tax and council tax, and my children have now got to suffer.
“He’s in Year 8, he’s settled and happy, and he’s going into Year 9 soon. He’s going to be massively impacted. The education standard’s great, but I’m going to have to make my child suffer, which is potentially going to affect his life.
“I work, so I can’t take him to school every day. We picked this school based on there being transport. [The council] is stripping away access on a whim, with a complete disregard for anything parents have said.
“It’s a lack of care for someone who has chosen a faith school, and a complete lack of understanding of the Christian faith… From our area, there is no direct bus to get to that school.”
One Beeston mother, Sarah Collins, 46, said her son was due to start at The Becket School in West Bridgford in September 2026 and previously told the LDRS she ‘fears’ an increased risk of violence, with more schoolchildren having to travel through the city centre each day.
She said: “This decision will mean a journey of around an hour to get to school, and potentially considerably longer when there are problems with the tram service.
“I am concerned about their safety, with significantly more schoolchildren from a number of different schools now expected to travel unsupervised on public transport through the city each day.”
Councillor John Semens (Ref), Deputy Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, said the authority estimated about 22 per cent of the 520 impacted pupils would not have ‘easy’ access to their school by public transport, saying the council “fully recognises the upheaval that may cause”.
Mrs Collins said this statistic from the council’s decision was her “biggest concern”, saying: “That 22 per cent will not be eligible for financial support, but may have other issues, such as SEND needs, preventing them from making those journeys – that is simply not good enough.
“This decision will have a profound impact on families, but particularly on those children whose families have no realistic way of getting them to their chosen school. They are the children who most need support, and yet they appear to be the ones being let down most severely.
“I expected better from our county council. The council should not be content with simply acknowledging that some children will be unable to access their school and then failing to provide a meaningful solution.”
Late last year, the Reform council announced it planned to save around £45 million over the next three financial years – the proposals put forward to cut the discretionary faith transport would form part of the authority’s savings.
Cllr Semens previously said that around £900,000 saving from axing the scheme is not a huge amount of money “in the grand scheme of things”, but it “makes sense” for the money to be put back into its statutory services – services which are often struggling.
Any changes will not impact those pupils who come from low-income families, and the authority says a mitigation package, involving journey planning, will be available for families.
The council says its cost of school transport across mainstream and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools has increased by 75 per cent in the last four years, with current projections estimating a further 36 per cent increase over the next three years.
Sixteen faith schools are currently benefiting from the transport scheme, 10 of which are in Nottinghamshire, three are in Nottingham, two are in neighbouring Derbyshire, and one is in Doncaster.
The school bus services impacted by the changes:
St Edmund Campion, West Bridgford – 448
Christ the King School, Arnold – 910
The McAuley Catholic High School, Doncaster – 668, 669
St John Houghton, Ilkeston – 415, 416
The Trinity Catholic School, Aspley – 218, 650
English Martyrs School, Long Eaton – 517
The Becket School, West Bridgford – 441, 442, 447, 448, 449, 681
All Saints Catholic Academy, Mansfield – 213, 214, 215, 217, 219, 221, 224
Good Shepherd Primary Catholic Academy, Woodthorpe – 652
St Philip Neri, Mansfield – 215, 219, 224
The Emmanuel School, West Bridgford – 681
Bluecoat Academy, Aspley – 218, 652
Bluecoat Academy, Wollaton – 218, 652
National CofE Academy, Hucknall – 413, 414, 415/417
Burntstump Seely, Arnold – 710
Services to The Minster School in Southwell are not listed in the council’s proposals because the school transport does not wholly or mainly provide transport for pupils on the discretionary faith-based scheme. However, the authority says faith pupils on the scheme could “expect a rise” in transport costs under the review.
Similar schemes in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire no longer exist.
This topic was considered by the authority more than 20 years ago, when it was decided that parents would begin contributing towards the cost to keep the service running. It was also considered again in 2018.
The County Council’s most recent consultation on the topic closed in June, including options to remove the scheme from either September 2027 or 2031, maintain it, or increase parents’ financial contributions.
By Lauren Monaghan, Local Democracy Reporter