While Ruth Kelly and John Prescott slowly ride off into the sunset of their political careers, so too does their plan for a network of yellow school buses.
On July 20, when responding to a question from Liberal Democrat Paul Keetch, the Junior Transport Minister Gillian Merron finally admitted what many had long feared when she said, ‘There are no plans to extend yellow bus schemes to more pilot areas or to the whole of England. Individual local authorities and passenger transport executives are encouraged to consider these and other dedicated school bus schemes as part of broader local transport planning and decide if they would be appropriate to their area’.
In 2005, the Sutton Trust commissioned Boston Consulting to look into the potential benefits of a national yellow school bus scheme in the UK. Their report was unequivocal. Such a scheme would cost between £83-£124m, but would significantly cut the 20% of morning peak-hour congestion cause by the school run; and in the end save two and a half times the cost of running the scheme. Not only would there be a huge economic saving by speeding up traffic, such an undertaking would also tackle the most pressing health and safety issue affecting young people.
When we asked Sir Peter Lampyl of the Sutton Trust to comment he said, ‘If the Government are serious about these issues, it should be doing all it can to support the yellow bus pilot schemes which are already operating successfully in some parts of the country, and to roll out the initiative more widely. This is a big issue which needs central Government direction’.
It is the school run and not school meals, that is directly responsible for more than 40 deaths and 900 serious injuries of school-aged students each year. While yellow school buses would not stop all school travel accidents, the experience in the US shows that dedicated school buses are indisputably the safest and most efficient way to get students to and from school.
Towards the end of her reply Ms Merron pointed out that it will be the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who will decide ‘which schemes to approve’. Those of you with enough enthusiasm to want to know what Alan Johnson’s criteria for approval of a yellow school bus scheme might be will have to wade through a document titled School Travel Pathfinder Draft Prospectus and Guidance (to be read in conjunction with the equally riveting Education and Inspections Bill).
This is a serious blow for companies like First Group who had already invested in yellow bus schemes. In retrospect their most fundamental mistake was in assuming that the government would be swayed by well-researched and reasoned argument. Businesses should perhaps have looked more closely at a completely different issue for lessons on how to influence government decision-making.
Somewhat surprisingly, the lesson comes from the debate about banning fox hunting. Those who supported hunting used a strategy of research, reasoned argument and engagement to try and influence both members of parliament and the public. They were successful in changing public opinion, but failed utterly to change the views of those wanting a ban in parliament.
Perhaps a smarter and more successful (if somewhat cynical) strategy for those seeking to influence politicians is to mimic Capita and have the Chairman of their company lend a million pounds to the Labour Party. It may no longer guarantee a knighthood or seat in the House of Lords, but it may be far more effective than spending a similar amount on lobbying and PR.
www.firstgroup.com
www.suttontrust.com
www.teachernet.gov.uk
