Campaigners call North Yorks home-to-school transport policy 'madness'
Parents say the council's mapping tool to calculate the closest distance to schools highlights the 'madness' of the policy
Last updated 31st Oct 2025
Campaigners say the use of a ford across the River Tees to calculate the closest distance to schools highlights the “madness” of a controversial home-to-school transport policy.
Parents have discovered that North Yorkshire Council’s mapping tool includes a private farm track and river crossing near the village of Manfield, between Richmond and Darlington.
The route is being used by the council to calculate which schools are closest to families’ homes, with new rules meaning the authority will only pay for school transport to a child’s nearest school.
The council says the mapping system uses “nearest available walked route” to schools.
But parents and campaigners say this route is neither available because it is on private land, nor is it suitable for walking as the ford is only passable using a tractor.
Gary and Jess Young, from Aldbrough St John, successfully appealed the council’s decision not to provide free transport for their son Arthur to attend Richmond School because, using the farm track and ford, Hummersknott in Darlington was nearer.
But despite the victory, the route has remained on the council’s mapping system, meaning it will be used when families apply for school transport in the future.
Mr Young said: “It is not an available walked route in any sense of the legal definition. And the issue we’ve got is that the local authority just seems to be burying its head in the sand.
“It refuses to acknowledge that an available route is a legally defined entity and not just another word in a document.”
Campaign group STAG, which was formed to fight the rule change, said the council had known about the error for a year, but had refused to correct it.
A spokesperson added: “In their desperate bid to make this flawed policy work, North Yorkshire Council has lost the plot on home to school transport.
“They are now knowingly using route calculations that they know to be wrong — and children will be the ones paying the price for their stubbornness.”
They added: “Sadly, this isn’t a one-off case of madness — we’re seeing mapping absurdities like this across the county.
“From routes that expect children to climb over metal barriers on the A64, to paths that cross an active military firing range, the system is riddled with dangerous errors.”
In response to the criticism, North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for inclusion, Amanda Fielding, said was not uncommon for children to attend a school in neighbouring authority areas, with thousands of children travelling to and from neighbouring areas every day.
She added: “We have a duty to provide transport to eligible children and we want to ensure this is in a safe, efficient and cost-effective way.
“When measuring distances from home to school, the distance is calculated from each home address to the nearest entrance gate identified within our mapping system following the nearest available walked route — this can include footpaths, bridleways and public rights of way.
“Our mapping system is updated on an annual basis and was last updated in September 2025. The methodology for measuring distances in this way is aligned to Department for Education guidance for local authorities.”
The officer said it was important to note that eligibility for travel was only decided after a pupil was offered a place in a school.