Council 'knew Llanfyllin school was bussing pupils'
A school governor today spoke of his vindication after minutes from a meeting revealed council officials were aware of a school's plans to spend money bussing in pupils from outside its catchment area – three years before action was taken.
The minutes from a Powys Schools Forum meeting from January 2013 show that Powys County Council knew Llanfyllin High School planned to use its delegated budget to provide home to school transport for out of county pupils to "support post-16 collaborative working".
Councillor Peter Lewis, also a governor at the school, said the minutes being out in the public forum showed the school never made any attempts to hide what was going on.
"This shows what we have been saying all along – that this wasn't hidden and Powys were aware of it, and shows proof of who was there and aware," he said.
"If there were any concerns with what was going on Councillor Wynne Jones, now the cabinet member for finance, was the chair of scrutiny, surely he would have called in what was going on if he was at all concerned. He had the power to do so but instead the council turned a blind eye to it to save money."
The minutes were shared on Twitter by Llanfyllin resident Dave Weston.
It comes after the school was told to pay back £17,000 – half of the cost of the subsidised transport it will provide for out-of-catchment pupils from April to September – to the county council last month. The school spent £500,000 over five years on providing the transport by bus.
The minutes show that present at the meeting were cabinet member for finance Councillor Wynne Jones – who at the time was chairman of scrutiny – cabinet member for finance at the time Councillor Dai Davies, and former portfolio holder for learning and leisure Councillor Myfanwy Alexander, as well as council officers.
Council leader Barry Thomas said an "independently-led review" into Llanfyllin High School's circumstances was already being carried out and said he could not comment further.
The PSF meeting minutes include a reference to Powys County Council allowing Llanfyllin High School to use its delegated budget to provide home to school transport for out of county pupils to "support post-16 collaborative working".
After seeing the tweet doing the rounds, Councillor Alexander replied: "I have always maintained that it was no secret – I had a paper prepared for cabinet about it."
It was revealed in March that an investigation had been launched after auditors discovered the school had broken EU rules to spend £500,000 to bus pupils to lessons.
Officials from the Wales Audit Office found that the school spent the money on subsidising the transport costs of pupils from outside its catchment area, including 149 from Shropshire and 38 from Powys.
The school must now also comply with county policy, which means pupils from outside its catchment area will have to pay for the transport.
The school and county council are now awaiting the outcome of the investigation.
