Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire have accused the Tory led Council of using its monopoly position as school meals provider to primary schools to demand unacceptable contractual terms.

Cllr Bill Hoult, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at County Hall says:

“Once again we see the Tory led Council giving a “stand and deliver” ultimatum that would make Dick Turpin proud. It needs to be recognised that many small schools across the County have nowhere else to go for school dinner provision and may have signed the contract without fully realising the penalty clauses written into the contract.”

The proposal by the North Yorkshire County Council is to renew the contract (service level agreement) to provide school meals which are currently on a six month rolling contract, with a five year contract with penalties for schools ending the contract early.

The penalty clauses are considered to be unacceptably harsh bearing in mind the monopoly position of the authority over school meals. For example a school with 100 pupils, 50% of whom take free school meals, would have to pay over £15,000 to terminate the contract after one year.

Schools will also have to specify the number of meals that it expects to be sold over each year, with a levy of 40p for every meal not taken up. The school would have no control over the price of meals (rises of above inflation are the norm, last years was more than 10%) or quality of the meal, all of the risk of falling take-up because of these factors would have to be met from school budgets.

Another cause of contention is the seemingly arbitrary decision to introduce the new contract from the 1 April this year, even though the terms of the existing contract run until July 2009. This tight timescale makes it difficult for schools to arrange alternative meal provision for their pupils.

Cllr Bill Hoult adds:

“Another factor that has not been thought through is what happens in those schools that have a year on year change in the number of pupils on free school meals. A reduction in those numbers could cost the school dearly. The whole issue needs to be reviewed.”

Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council are disappointed that the Tory bosses have opted to go ahead with increasing school transport charges by more than inflation.

Last month the Conservative administration decided to increase charges for post-16 home to school transport by 3%. Liberal Democrats called in the decision for further examination, as it is inappropriate during a recession and hits rural areas hardest.

However, at yesterday’s special meeting of the Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the Tory-dominated committee voted to press ahead with the increase. Labour abstained on the issue.

Lib Dem County Councillor Caroline Seymour (Stokesley) said:

“After a 5% increase last year, and bearing in mind the economic climate, this rise is highly inappropriate. Added to the Tories’ above-inflation council tax rise, this will be hard for many families to cope with.”

“It will hit people in rural areas hardest, as they are much more likely to rely on home to school transport.”

“Once again Labour failed to oppose the Tories. Only the Liberal Democrats are fighting for people on modest incomes and providing some opposition at County Hall.”

Faced with the news that the County Council will be under-spending on its capital projects by £12 million in this financial year, Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire are calling for some of it to be spent on substandard schools.

In May last year Tory Chiefs received a  damning report on the state of schools across the County and agreed to allocate £2 million in 2009/10 and £4 million in 2010/11 to raise standards.

However, despite imposing a 3.94% Council tax rise, having at least £63 million in reserves and heading for about a further £10 million under-spend this year, the Council has delayed the works.

County Councillor Bill Hoult, Liberal Democrat Leader at the County Council, comments:
“We believe that it is common sense in the circumstances to spend £6 million of the unspent money on bringing our schools up to a proper standard. The input of these works this year would be a double benefit by helping struggling small businesses due to the economic climate.”