'Senior officers and councillors were not aware Llanfyllin High School had broken bus rules'
Senior officers and councillors were not aware that a school had broken rules by spending £500,000 bussing in pupils from outside its catchment area, an independent barrister has said.
In a report going before Powys County Council's cabinet members on Tuesday, councillors will hear the findings based on a further investigation report by Jonathan Walters, who led the probe into how Llanfyllin High School spent the money on subsidising the transport costs of pupils from outside its catchment.
Despite school governors and local councillors claiming the council had "known all along that this was going on”, Mr Walters said in his investigation report that he does not consider that to be the case.
He said: "Whilst I can readily understand the suspicion of interested parties that the PWC report in 2014 did alert senior officers and councillors to the breach of the council’s scheme, there are a number of factors which militate against such a finding.
"No one picked the matter up at the material time including the LEA governors of Llanfyllin High School. No one advanced this matter or referred to this report during the first investigation which suggests that no one was aware of its potential significance.
"If the allegation is true there would have been a collective decision by a number of senior officers and councillors to withhold the PWC report from consideration by me in the hope that it would not materialise and that is not a credible contention."
Mr Walters also said he didn't believe senior officers and councillors were aware of the breach because of the genuine reactions of when the matter finally emerged in January 2016.
He added: "On the evidence I have obtained, therefore, I do not consider that the PWC report alters the conclusions I reached in the first investigation report concerning the actions of governors, councillors or officers of the council.
"It follows that I do not consider that the PWC report alters any of the recommendations I made in the first investigation report and there are no further recommendations necessary as a result of this second investigation report."
News of the breach sparked wide-spread controversy in the community, with four school governors suspended from their post, one being Councillor Darren Mayor, who stepped down from the council's cabinet prior to the investigation.
Cabinet members are recommended to note the contents of Mr Walters' investigation report and resolve that no further action is taken at their meeting on Tuesday.
