North Lanarkshire Council has agreed to establish a working group to review its criteria for assessing school transportation and walking routes and ensure child safety is "placed as the number one priority" after months of assuring families that their policy was sound.

Following a successful SNP motion, the council will assemble a new member/officer working group today. The group will review transportation policies and eligibility criteria and report to the education committee in February, in time for any changes to take effect before the council proceeds with planned cuts to primary school bus routes in August 2025.

Any new criteria agreed by the working group and council will also be retroactively applied to secondary bus routes, some of which were cut at the start of this school year.

Parents concerned about the safety of multiple walking routes have been campaigning against the bus cuts since the council first agreed to a policy change in 2023, which reduced eligibility for school transportation by one mile. 

Kerry Anne Ferrie of the Cathedral Primary Parent Bus Group said the working group represents progress. Still, she added, there is work to do before primary school parents feel confident their children won't be unfairly impacted.

She said: "We take this as a positive step forward but a further step forward would be to delay primary school implementation for a further year – that is not going to be easy as we require funds to do so, but we will continue to campaign for more time, which then allows us more time to campaign to get the decision reversed, which is the ultimate aim."

She said parents would advocate for a seat in the working group and for members to review every route individually, considering "common sense" factors in each circumstance.

Lorraine Kerr, chair of the Stepps Primary Parent Council, said parents feel vindicated and thanked groups such as Save NLC School Buses for their consistent campaigning.

Ms Kerr said: "This decision acknowledges what we, as parents, have been saying all along: the walking route assessments were not fit for purpose. They failed to consider critical factors such as pavement condition, lighting, and visibility, all of which must be taken into account when determining the safety of a walking route."

In addition to echoing Ms Ferrie's calls for parents to have "visibility and involvement" in the working group's composition and process, she said time is of the essence. 

"Our input is critical in developing the new criteria. However, swift action is essential.

"The working group needs to be formed immediately," she added, so that any cut high school routes that don't meet the new criteria can be reassessed as soon as possible.

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The new working group results from a North Lanarkshire Council's SNP Group motion, which was lodged at this week's full council meeting and passed without objection following the last-minute withdrawal of a Labour amendment. 

SNP Group Leader Tracy Carragher said that the working group should have the power to ensure that the council's criteria for assessing the safety of walking routes is robust.

The council will finalise the group's membership this week. The group will report its recommendations to the education committee so that any agreed-upon changes will be applied to the assessment of primary school routes ahead of planned changes in 2025.

The group's findings and any approved changes will also apply to secondary routes that have already been assessed, which could result in the reinstatement of some cut routes.

But Ms Carragher emphasised that the council's overall decision to reduce eligibility still stands.

She said: "This motion will not reverse the decision taken by the Labour Administration on mileage.  

"That can only be achieved by identifying funding.  

"Unfortunately, in this financial year, all attempts by my group to achieve this were voted down and the identified funding allocated elsewhere."

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Ms Carragher and the SNP Group were unsuccessful in previous attempts to introduce one-off funding to pay for school bus routes and delay changes to the provision.

When asked to respond to parent claims that the council's current walking route assessments are not fit for purpose, a spokesperson for the council said the working group will "examine the criteria for providing school transport, taking into account pupil safety."

"This will include consideration of factors such as the nature of walking routes.

“Any recommendations from the report will be submitted at a meeting of the council in due course.”