The Council and democracy The draft budget proposals 2017-20

Schools and school crossings

1. Review the funding of services to schools, saving £1million over three years. The way schools are funded has changed significantly over recent years as many schools now receive money directly from the Government. The Council provides a number of functions which support and challenge schools to do their best for their pupils. We could make savings by reviewing the funding of these services.
2. Reduce school-crossing patrols, saving £220,000 in 2018/19. By investing in roads outside some schools we will make more school-crossings safer than they currently are. As a result of this, some crossings will no longer need a patrol but we will continue to provide patrols, as now, where need is greater. Schools would also have the option to fund their own crossing patrol.
3. Reuse closed school sites, saving £221,000 over three years. We could save the cost of maintaining closed school sites by reusing them for other educational purposes.

What people said when we asked about this between 3 November and 15 December 2016. 

People said:

Strongest agreement was for the option to reuse closed school sites, with ninety-four percent agreeing, mainly because of the positive impact it would have. Disagreement was highest with the option to reduce school crossing patrols, with forty-four percent disagreeing. Eighteen percent of comments were disagreements with this option, mainly on grounds of safety. Thirty-eight percent of people said these options would have a negative impact on them and their community.

We said:

These are now budget proposals. Following consultation and further work we have changed the options for school crossings patrols and propose to invest even more to make as many crossings as possible so safe that they won't need a patrol, maintaining our policy to have patrols at all but the most unsafe crossings.

Consultation on our proposed budget closed on 10 February 2017. We  listened hard and considered all responses before finally setting our budget at our council meeting on 3 March.

Thanks to the thousands who joined the conversation.