Councillors gagged over faith schools

1.41.06pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 17th Jul 2006

Gagged Councillors to make blindfolded decision.

'County councillors are being prevented from analysing the likely environmental effects of the Tory proposal to withdraw free transport for faith school pupils' says Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Cllr Malcolm Cowan.

'We asked for a scrutiny of the likely effects before a final decision is made by the county council on July 18. That was refused.

Then we asked for the environmental effects to be discussed by the Highways and Transport panel it its meeting on Thursday July 6th. That was agreed at the previous Highways and Transport meeting on June 1st, and the decision is minuted.

'Then when we got the agenda for the July 6th meeting, the item was missing. The explanation is that a report could not be produced in time.

In other words, the Tories didn't get round to asking for a report in time. We have lost the opportunity to examine exactly what the environmental effects will be, and suggest ways to mitigate the increase in school-run traffic. We are being gagged. We know that parents will vote with their wallets not to pay for school transport but use their own car' says Malcolm, who represents Handside and Peartree in WGC.

'This is bad government. We will be making a decision blindfold. The process could have been put back to allow proper scrutiny, but instead we are having to rush to make a decision. Clearly facts are not wanted in this case ' Malcolm concluded.