Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thank Gillian Mackay for securing this debate on behalf of her constituents, who are here in the chamber today, and I congratulate those constituents on raising the profile of the often very complex issue of school transport on the national stage. I am sure that their campaign is really resonating with communities across Scotland.

Getting the wee ones out safely to school in the morning and back in the afternoon is a real challenge for many families. It defines the working day for many people. Indeed, I fondly remember those days myself. I am minded to think back to my former role as a councillor in Dunblane, where I supported many families who had similar school transport problems.

In the case of Dunblane, a commercial bus service linking both sides of the town was withdrawn, leaving many pupils stranded, and, in the dark and wet, children like Ella would struggle to get to school, while half-empty buses carrying distance-entitled pupils would go past, unable to stop. The distance-entitlement criteria meant that some of their friends in neighbouring streets could get the bus, while they could not. In the end, more parents drove to the high school, causing more parking safety issues. Some of those who managed to walk did so on unlit paths, while those who cycled had the benefit of the national cycle network in the town, but unsafe crossing points still had to be negotiated, which put off many children.

At that time, there was no concessionary travel for children over five years old. Today, there is free bus travel for all under-22s, which has provided flexibility for young people and supported commercial bus services. That said, there is a critical need for councils to co-ordinate services between education buses and fare-paying services. As many members have reflected, the critical elements are parental engagement and planning.

At the start of last term, students in Dunfermline were desperate to get on commercial buses going to Woodmill high school, but, given the numbers of under-22 card holders and fare-paying passengers, there was overcrowding to the point that some buses drove past students, leaving them stranded on the pavement. Some buses were late, while others did not arrive at all, which made it stressful for families and forced teachers to challenge lateness. One of my constituents told me:

“Having to provide comfort and support for my daughter as she transitioned to high school is naturally being part of a parent, but having to manage unreliable bus services and to tell her that it is not her fault that the bus did not stop or was a no-show was painful.”

This term, in Dunfermline, a new commercial bus service has been introduced to plug the gap and meet demand, but that could have been anticipated by Fife Council much earlier in the summer. The fact, though, is that parental engagement and planning are really important.

It is also important that councils consider how we make walking, wheeling and cycling to school more accessible, safer and fun for young people. Councils need to keep working on creating safer routes from the streets where young people live to their schools.

The first step in that respect is safer 20mph speed limits. The next step is proper investment in walking, wheeling and cycle paths away from traffic, with better crossing points and other improvements. That will require funding in next year’s Scottish budget, so that councils can deliver the tier 1 projects at pace and finally complete their planned roll-out of 20mph speed limits. I hope that the transport minister is listening to that point and will reflect on it when closing the debate.

In particular, the national cycle network is a great resource that connects many local streets to schools, but it requires investment to make it more accessible and safer.

Of course, all those investments support health, road safety and traffic and pollution reduction. All schools must be supported to deliver bikeability training on the streets around schools, while building a confident school cycle culture, with bike buses and other programmes.

Again, I thank Gillian Mackay and the campaigners. I wish them well and hope that other school communities and councils across Scotland will take inspiration from their campaign, get the engagement right and design the right school travel solutions for their communities. A package of solutions is needed. Buses and active travel are part of that, and parents and pupils must be at the heart of that conversation.

I come back to the fact that there is no minimum threshold for prohibiting land transfers or requiring notification to be provided of an intention to sell. The whole landholding needs to be above the wider threshold, but there is no minimum size for a transfer that falls within the prohibition and notification requirements. Do you support that? Do you think that there could be any unintended consequences?

We took some evidence from Atholl Estates, which talked about the very small transfers of land alongside footpaths or the backs of gardens that it might be involved in. It said that, as a larger estate, if it came under some of the proposed requirements as a result of there being no minimum threshold for the transfer of such very small assets, that would be problematic for the community as well as for it. Do you support the fact that there is no minimum threshold?

Do you mean that people are less likely to be open about their true feelings regarding land management?

That is a good example of significance—that is, if there were housing need in a community, and 1 hectare of land was available to be turned from temporary accommodation to permanent housing.

One issue that was raised with us was whether moving a fence by a couple of metres, say, would be captured by the bill. Might that be deemed to be not significant to the community? Could such cases, under the definition, be left out of the provisions?

Josh Doble, do you want to come in?

I am aware of a discussion at the moment in Aberfeldy about woodland crofts. Would that be part of the forestry plan with Forestry and Land Scotland, or does it belong in the local place plan, the land management plan or all three? There is a question in my head about how to make sense of that.

Josh Doble, do you want to come in?

Thank you.

Linda Gillespie said at the start of the meeting that the bill focuses less on urban areas, which takes us to the issue of local place plans. I can imagine having a local land management plan for the estates surrounding a village and a local place plan for the village. That plan might or might not incorporate land that is owned by a local estate and it might be relevant for housing. Some of those issues were highlighted in the committee’s trip to highland Perthshire. It feels as if that could start to get a bit messy and that we need some clarity about where democratic influence lies. Do you have any thoughts about how to bring those things together?

We have covered thresholds in some depth, convener, so I was going to move on from that.

Can I just wrap up on the criteria?