Transport: Celebrating new after school bus for Longhill students
Thanks to a petition submitted to Brighton & Hove City Council and the support of local parents, headteachers and cross-party councillors, we are really pleased that there is now a new trial after-school bus from Longhill School to enable kids from East Brighton to attend an exciting beefed-up programme of after school activities.
For students in East Brighton and their families, this positive, practical and most of all, tangible move opens up the enriching extra-curricular opportunities that children (and their parents) attending schools closer and more easily accessible can often take for granted. We're pleased with this change for the families of East Brighton.
We appreciate the support that Councillors Amy Heley and Jamie Lloyd of the current Green administration will have provided in this decision, and the meetings and efforts in support that we have received from Labour Councillors Nancy Platt and Gill Williams. We're also grateful to Kevin Miller from Whitehawk FC and Victoria Garcia from Brighton and Hove Buses, who we initially met with to discuss organizing a community bus.
Whilst this is a positive day for addressing one of the transport issues our families face, we were disappointed that in the council meeting held yesterday (which you can watch here) that while the Council officers described their inability to change free school transport policy which is set by central Government, there was still no recognition that for the lowest income families sitting in Whitehawk, the need to pay for school travel outside the catchment area means a restricted choice of secondary school for their children.
As a low-income parent or guardian in East Brighton, one of the primary factors when deciding on the secondary school that best meets a child's needs is cost. If you decide that a school other than the catchment area school better suits your child needs you will have to pay to get them there despite the fact that all secondaries in the city are over three miles away from our neighbourhoods. This reality shows that for many families living on the East Brighton estates that choice of secondary school is just an illusion. Some families will earn just over the Free School Meals threshold of £16,190 - just enough not to get free school travel, but not enough to fund the daily expense over years of travelling to different schools in the city. (around £300 per child per year).
It is also worth noting that as the school years pass and children from East Brighton move through the system as it is today, Brighton & Hove City Council's strategies to address the challenges raised by this Class Divide campaign move so slowly. While we applaud and thank the council for the Longhill bus trial, we note that 0 of this campaign's five demands have been met, and deep inequalities continue to exist in this city in educational attainment. There continues to be a lack of urgency in addressing known problems that demonstrably affect the lives of people in our community.
Looking forward, to build on this positive step we believe that with continued support from councillors, Council leadership, and potentially support from Hove MP Peter Kyle in his role as Shadow Schools Minister, there is an opportunity to work with all parties in the city to make free school travel for under 16-year-olds work in Brighton & Hove. As a city, we are diverse, open-minded and have the potential to accept that an overriding central government approach is not the only way to fix education. We could do better and lead the way.
If you're in doubt as to why we exist and why we are focusing on transport right now, please watch this BBC Politics South East piece.
Watch the full response from the council below.