Details of the consultation and a link to the online response form are available online at www.surreycc.gov.uk/schooltransportconsultation.

In the current economic climate, Surrey County Council is not proposing any change to its home to school transport policy for 2015. With the cost of transport increasing, Surrey is working hard to ensure that its expenditure under existing policy remains within budget. Any proposal to extend or vary policy would lead to an increase in expenditure on home to school transport and any increase in expenditure would be likely to impact on other services that the Council offers as Surrey would need to consider making savings elsewhere to fund that increase.

The County Council want to hear from you

However, whilst the County Council has not proposed any changes to its policy, it is interested to hear:

• the views of Surrey residents and schools on the equity of the existing policy
• details of any home to school transport difficulties that Surrey parents might currently face; and
• details of any suggestions for change (recognising that any additional expenditure on home to school transport would mean that Surrey would need to make savings elsewhere).

Details of this consultation have been sent to all Surrey schools and early years providers along with a form of wording that they might use on their websites, in newsletters or on noticeboards. However in order to reach a wider audience I would be grateful if you could also share this with local community and residents' groups in your area as appropriate.

Submit your views

Villagers are encouraged to read the paperwork and if they wish to submit their views please note the closing date of Friday 20 December 2013.

After the closing date an analysis of the responses will be prepared and recommendations on the policy for 2015 will be put forward to Surrey County Council's Cabinet on 22 April 2014. The transport policy for 2015 will then be published on Surrey’s website and in the school admissions booklets for 2015, which will be available from the beginning of September 201.