Mayor's free college bus plan stalled

Many students in High Peak communities like Glossop travel outside the county for further education

A plan to subsidise free bus travel for college students in part of Derbyshire has hit the brakes due to a political wrangle.

East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward said an agreement had been reached in principle with her Manchester counterpart Andy Burnham, to extend his existing Our Pass bus travel scheme into the High Peak area.

But the pilot, which she had hoped to begin from the start of the new academic year in September, cannot progress without the blessing of Derbyshire County Council.

It is calling for the mayor to “think again” and instead provide subsidised travel to all 16 to 18-year-olds in Derbyshire wanting to access education.

The free buses would only have been available to High Peak students attending further education colleges in Greater Manchester.

Derbyshire County Council leader Barry Lewis said he felt the mayor's proposed scheme was “unfair”.

Council leader Barry Lewis would like a wider scheme to be considered

In an open letter he said: “We are supportive of the aims behind offering free travel for young people to get to education, training or apprenticeships, but only offering this to students who live in the High Peak is unfair to other young people in the county.

“We believe that this offer should extend equally to all of Derbyshire’s young people, including all of our district and borough areas rather than just one.”

Mayor Claire Ward said the infrastructure was in place for the High Peak scheme, one of her manifesto pledges, to begin in September if Derbyshire would allow it.

She added allowing the proposal for about 200 students in High Peak would not mean a wider scheme could not be explored - but limited local further education provision in High Peak and the resulting travel costs being incurred by families was currently a barrier to some school leavers choosing to continue their studies.

Mayor Claire Ward had promised to address the issue in High Peak in her manifesto

She said: “It costs families a huge amount of money to send those students across to Greater Manchester, and sitting next to them are other students from Manchester who are able to travel around for the nominal cost of £10 for a pass for two years.

“It’s really preventing some students from going to college. What I’ve been trying to do is bring in a pilot scheme to fund initially a pass to get students into those colleges.

“They live in our area, and it’s our responsibility to do what is right and recognise the needs of those communities.

"There may be a longer term opportunity but right now I’m trying to solve a problem and frankly I’m disappointed."

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