2. Will the First Minister make a statement on the provision of home-to-school transport in Rhondda Cynon Taf? OQ60502

Llywydd, home-to-school transport is a statutory duty of Welsh local authorities. Proposals put forward by Rhondda Cynon Taf will continue to meet the requirements of this Senedd’s learner travel Measure.

First Minister, as you may be well aware, and as you've just mentioned, even though RCT council have financial reserves of a staggering £270 million, they now intend to end home-to-school transport for those children living within two miles of primary schools and three miles of secondary schools on the grounds of budget cuts from the Welsh Government. This has angered many residents who feel that these cuts are unjustified given the excessive reserves that the council has and the fact that they pay some of the highest council tax rates in the entire United Kingdom. They are also angered because the council's own consultation exercise has highlighted the detrimental impact these cuts will have on Welsh language learning, which will be adversely impacted and which will pose a risk to their target of significantly growing the number of learners accessing Welsh-medium education. Moreover, First Minister, this removal of home-to-school transport for these distances will almost certainly result in parents driving their children to school and increasing localised pollution and traffic, which seem to be exactly the opposite of what the Welsh Government is trying to do. It also flies in the face of what the Welsh Youth Parliament and the Welsh children's commissioner have been advocating. With this in mind, what stepse is the Welsh Government taking to challenge RCT council to use some of its £270 million-worth of reserves, which it has collected from hard-working taxpayers, on keeping the home-to-school transport provision? Thank you.

Well, Llywydd, the issue of local authority reserves was very effectively dealt with by the leader of RCT council, Councillor Andrew Morgan, on Sunday. He offered to debate any Conservative politician who wished to take him on in explaining how reserves are actually available to local authorities in Wales, and I don't see a single person who has come forward to do that.

As to home-to-school transport, four of the 22 local authorities in Wales currently offer a service over and above that set out in the learner travel Measure. All four are Labour councils. You wouldn't be surprised at that. RCT council, were it to simply offer the basic learner travel Measure standard, as 18 of our local authorities do, would save £6.5 million in the expenditure that it will otherwise provide next year. The changes that it is planning to make—proposing to make—will save them £2.5 million. In other words, RCT council, after the changes, will still provide more than 18 other councils in Wales—any council where the Conservative Party is in charge and any council where Plaid Cymru is in charge. In very difficult times, I think that is a course of action that continues to demonstrate the priority that the council attaches to these services.