MP calls for review of £170 school transport hike

An MP has called for an urgent review of North Northamptonshire Council's decision to increase the cost of non-statutory home to school travel by £170 from September.

The authority announced the annual charge would increase from £795 to £965 from the start of the next academic year.

Lee Barron, Labour MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, said this would make it "unaffordable" for many families and called on the Reform UK-controlled council to reverse the decision.

The council said there was an "unsustainable" cost gap after nearly a decade of the annual charge being largely unchanged.

In a letter to council leader Martin Griffiths, Barron criticised the decision, saying the authority had "promised lower costs for families".

The decision was "wholly unacceptable", he said.

Chris McGiffen, the council's executive member for highways and travel, said it had been a "tough decision".

He said: "For years the amount that was charged was not increased sufficiently and the amount it has been subsidised has just gone up and up to a point where the issue must be addressed."

Mitigation measures had been put in place to help people finding the increase hard, he added.

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