Brighton council Home to School transport report kept secret

Councillors voted to kick the press and public out of a meeting before deciding a barrister’s report into Home to School Transport failings would be kept secret – despite a promise that it would be published.

The Argus can now reveal that the decision to keep the report examining what went wrong secret was taken on “legal advice”. But officials are refusing to say what the advice was, only that it was given by a London Chamber.

“The council, like all other organisations and individuals, is able to take and rely on confidential legal advice,” a spokesman said.

The Argus has now handed in a Freedom of Information request in a bid to obtain the document the council had previously promised to release.

Some of the city’s most vulnerable children were left with unsafe, or no, transport to school after council officials changed the contractors.

Some blamed the new transport providers – mainly local taxi firms – although it turned out that cabbies and operators had gone above and beyond their contracts to get round problems created by the council.

It then emerged the problems came after senior officials awarded contracts using a “dynamic purchasing system”, overriding a democratic decision made by councillors.

The controversial system was criticised as being better suited to ordering stationery than transporting vulnerable children.

A cost-cutting consultancy company called Edge Public Solutions promised savings, but actually sent the budget hundreds of thousands of pounds into the red.

Council chief executive Geoff Raw asked an independent barrister to carry out an investigation following what parents described as an “epic failure”.

The council promised that the barrister’s findings would be “publicly published”.

But at a meeting on March 26, Labour councillors Daniel Yates, Les Hamilton and Clare Moonan; Green councillors Siriol Hugh-Jones, Hannah Clare, and Amy Heley; and Conservative councillors Samer Bagaeen and Garry Peltzer Dunn voted unanimously to kick out the press and public so they could decide on whether to renege on this promise.

Council officers Alice Rowland, Helen Aston and David Bradley were also present.

The Argus understands that the “confidential legal advice” was then presented before the councillors.

Councillors voted on whether to release the report. As neither press or public were at the meeting, it is not known which councillors voted for its release.

When contacted, the Conservatives said they valued transparency and openness "in line with the Nolan Principles”. Councillor Yates had spoken about similar values earlier in the meeting.

A parent affected by the fiasco, Rob Arbery, former chair of governors at Hill Park School, Portslade, said: “We were promised an honest, open and thorough investigation into the failings of Home to School Transport.

Rob Arbery and his son

“To keep confidential the final findings undermines the entire process and leaves families wondering just who is to blame.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Our audit and standards committee last October stated its intention to publish the Barrister’s report in full.

“However, the council received further legal advice after that meeting which was considered by the committee on March 26.

“It is not unusual for the council not to publish legal advice.

“The report councillors considered at our audit and standards committee on 26 March covered legal and contractual issues, rather than issues directly affecting the children and families that used our home to school transport services."