The General Election period has been blamed for not allowing a Powys County Council scrutiny committee that deals with education the time to probe a draft new school transport policy.

At a meeting of the council’s Economy, Residents and Communities (ERC) scrutiny committee on Monday, September 9, councillors received a report providing “interim” feedback from an ongoing consultation on tweaks to the Home to School Transport policy.

At the meeting Conservative, Cllr Gwynfor Thomas, the chairman of the Learning and Skills scrutiny committee, blasted the council for not allowing his committee to also debate the proposals.

Cllr Thomas said: “This should have come to both scrutiny committees before going to consultation.

“In some respects, this is more important to education than transport.

“I really don’t understand why this isn’t coming to education scrutiny as well.

“I think it’s very important that we should have looked at this, particularly around the Welsh language.”

He added that he was also “disappointed” that the consultation period had been run over the school holidays and that he believed it had only been mentioned on the council’s social media “once.”

Cllr Thomas said: “I’m surprised at that and it’s like we don’t want the public to know about it.

“We have not reached out to all our parents.”

He hoped schools could inform parents of the consultation which still has a day left to run.

Passenger transport manager Sarah Leyland-Morgan said: “Unfortunately we were pushed back in being able to get this policy out for consultation due to the General Election.”

ECR committee chairwoman, Liberal Democrat Cllr Angela Davies asked if there was still time for the item to be scrutinised by the Learning and Skills committee.

Head of highways transport and recycling John Forsey said: “If we want to implement it for the next admission round, we have to get a decision by the end of this month to give that notice period we are required to do.”

He also believed it was not “fair” asking council officers to answer which committee should look at a topic.

Highways transport and recycling cabinet member, Liberal Democrat, Cllr Jackie Charlton said: “I have no problem at all with it going to any scrutiny committee because I think it’s always helpful.

“The only problem is that the time frame has been cut short because of the General Election and we needed to make sure all the legal implications in the policy were correct.

“This should have gone out much earlier, but we are where we are.”

Cllr Thomas said that his committee will discuss the policy in private and email comments to be included in the consultation.

Cllr Thomas said: “It’s unfair on my committee, I’m unhappy we can use the election as an excuse.”

The draft policy was provisionally approved by Cabinet at the end of July to allow the consultation to take place.

A final updated policy will be implemented from September 2025.

The main changes are around the introduction of school catchment area maps and clarifying when a pupil qualifies for transport.

Commonly known as “purdah” the pre-election period means that decision making at public bodies which could be seen as “political” grinds to a halt ahead of election day.

This is so that that none of the candidates contesting the election gains an advantage.

The consultation ends on Thursday, September 12 and can be found by visiting https://www.haveyoursaypowys.wales/home-to-school-transport