Agenda and minutes

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Venue: County Hall, Preston

Contact: Iris Winn  Tel: (01772) 537986, Email:  appeals@lancashire.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

3.

Minutes of the meeting held on 16 th March 2020

Minutes:

Resolved: That; the Minutes of the meeting held on the 16th March 2020 were confirmed as

an accurate record and was signed by the Chair.

4.

Urgent Business

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

5.

Date of the Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee will be held at 10.00am on the 1st September 2020 ( subject to change).

Minutes:

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee will be held at 10.00am on the

1st September 2020 ( subject to change due to Covid – 19).

6.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 as indicated against the heading of the item and that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

7.

Student Support Appeals

(Not for Publication – Exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.  It is considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interests in disclosing the information).

 

Please note that due to the confidential nature of the information included in this report it will not be published on the website.

Minutes:

4727

It was reported that a request for transport assistance had initially been refused as the pupil would not be attending their nearest suitable school, which was 7.48 miles from the home address, and instead would attend the second nearest  school which was 8.31 miles from the home address. The pupil was therefore not entitled to free transport in accordance with the Council's policy or the law.

 

The family were appealing to the Committee on the grounds that they had extenuating circumstances to warrant the Committee in exercising its discretion and award transport that was not in accordance with the Council's policy or the law.

The appellant stated as noted by the Committee, that they and their partner moved to their present address last year as they needed a bigger property with more bedrooms for the children.  It was noted the appellant was not appealing on financial or medical grounds but was appealing on educational continuity grounds and other exceptional grounds.  The pupil was allocated a school in an area which was over 20 miles away and completely inaccessible.  The family appealed the decision and after a very stressful 4 months, finally managed to get the pupil into the school they are attending presently which was much nearer.  The grounds of their admission appeals centred on the fact that the school attended was one of the nearest schools to their address.  The family's transport claim was dismissed on the basis of distance to the school from home, but the council allocated the pupil a school over 20 miles away.  This did not make sense and contradicted council's decision not to provide support.  The family had made great efforts to get the pupil into a school much nearer their home and it would be greatly appreciated if the Committee would grant support with the pupil's commute to school.  Transport would be required from September2020 until the family's circumstance changed. 

The Committee noted the officer's comments which stated transport assistance had been refused as the pupil was not attending their nearest qualifying school which was 7.48 miles from the home address.

It was noted by the Committee the authority accepted the pupil was initially offered a place at a school which was over 15 miles from their home address.  The area where the pupil lived was over 7 miles from the nearest school.  There were 6 closer schools to the pupil's home address than the one attended but these schools were all oversubscribed.

It was brought to the Committee's attention that the pupil was not offered a place at any of their preferred schools as they did not have sufficient priority for a place.  The pupil did not reside in the geographical priority area for the school attended, they did not meet the faith criteria for the faith school and did not pass the test for the grammar school.  If the school attended had been a preference on the school application a place would have been offered.  The pupil got a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.