CUMBERLAND Council is launching a consultation process to look at proposed changes to its assisted home to school transport policy.

Councillor Elaine Lynch (Wigton, Labour), the portfolio holder for lifelong learning and development, told members of the executive committee about it at a meeting at the Copeland Centre in Whitehaven on Tuesday (July 23).

She said they had already made savings of more than £500,000 from its school transport budget by reviewing the routes and further savings are currently being explored.

Cllr Lynch told members there would be no change in eligibility for the scheme and added: "If children are currently eligible they will remain eligible."

Speaking at last month's meeting of the council's health and wellbeing board cllr Lynch said that a total of around £505,000 had been saved by measures such as reviewing routes.

According to the council report this work is ongoing, and further savings may be realised in the coming weeks and months.

The report states: "The team will also, in future, focus more on route review to determine where savings can be made.

"There will be an initial cost associated with some proposed elements of the new policy. Independent travel training may cost in the region of £40,000 to £50,000 for 50 young people, but could save some high-cost routes from being run at all."

According to the report the home to school transport budget for the current financial year, 2024/25, is around £11.8 million and during the previous financial year, 2023/24, the expenditure was around £12.9 million, to be confirmed at the year end, and the previous forecast was £14.6 million.

Cllr Lynch said the proposed changes would hopefully be a "win-win for parents, pupils and the council".

Members agreed the recommendations to approve the consultation process and noted the progress made on wider home to school travel transformation.