Decision details
Home to School Transport Appeal
Decision Maker: Chief Executive Officer
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Decision:
This matter contained exempt information of
the description contained in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A
to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local
Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006
The Chief Executive Officer considered three appeals against the
Authority’s decision not to provide home to school transport
for three secondary school students and agreed that the appeals be
NOT UPHELD (item 5) and UPHELD (item 6) for the reasons set out
below in this decision record.
By whom: Richard Flinton, Chief Executive Officer, under emergency
delegated powers and after consultation with the Members of the
Appeals Committee (Home to School Transport)
PLEASE NOTE that as a non-executive function, these decisions are
not open to call in.
Reasons for the decision:
Under his delegated decision making powers in
the Officers’ Delegation Scheme in the Council’s
Constitution, the Chief Executive Officer has power, in cases of
emergency, to take any decision which could be taken by the
Council, the Executive or a committee.
Following on from the expiry of the Local Authorities and Police
and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and
Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations
2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”), which allowed for
committee meetings to be held remotely, the County Council resolved
at its meeting on 5 May 2021 that, for the present time, in light
of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic circumstances, remote
live-broadcast committee meetings should continue as informal
meetings of the committee members, with any formal decisions
required being taken by the Chief Executive Officer under his
emergency decision making powers and after consultation with other
Officers and Members as appropriate and after taking into account
any views of the relevant Committee Members. This approach will be
reviewed by full Council at its September meeting.
The Chief Executive Officer has taken all relevant information into
account in exercising his emergency delegated powers in this
matter, including considering the views of the Appeals Committee
(Home to School Transport) Members expressed during their informal
meeting on 9 August 2021.
The reasons for the decisions on these appeals are:
Item 5 - that the relevant Authority’s Home to School
Transport Policy had been applied correctly in this case and that
there were not sufficient exceptional circumstances in this case to
warrant a departure from the Policy.
Item 6 – that although the relevant Authority’s Home to
School Transport Policy had been applied correctly, the exceptional
individual circumstances of these two cases were sufficient to
warrant a departure from this Policy and justify the provision of
free home to school transport.
Alternative options considered:
None.
Publication date: 16/08/2021
Date of decision: 16/08/2021