Officials 'knew of Llanfyllin High School bus spending' claim
Council officials knew a school was wrongly spending money bussing in pupils from outside its catchment area – three years before action was taken, it has been claimed.
Minutes from a Powys Schools Forum meeting from January 2013 show that Powys County Council allowed Llanfyllin High School to use its delegated budget to provide home to school transport for out of county pupils to "support post-16 collaborative working".
The minutes have been shared on Twitter by Llanfyllin resident Dave Weston.
It comes after the school was told to pay back £17,000 – half of the cost of the subsidised transport it will provide for out-of-catchment pupils from April to September – to the county council last month. The school spent £500,000 over five years on providing transport.
Council leader Barry Thomas said an "independently-led review" into Llanfyllin High School's circumstances was already being carried out and said he could not comment further.
The PSF meeting minutes include a reference to Powys County Council allowing Llanfyllin High School to use its delegated budget to provide home to school transport for out of county pupils to "support post-16 collaborative working".
The minutes show that present at the meeting were cabinet member for finance Councillor Wynne Jones – who at the time was chairman of scrutiny – cabinet member for finance at the time Councillor Dai Davies, and former portfolio holder for learning and leisure Councillor Myfanwy Alexander, as well as council officers.
On seeing the tweet doing the rounds, Councillor Alexander replied: "I have always maintained that it was no secret – I had a paper prepared for cabinet about it."
It was revealed in March that an investigation had been launched after auditors discovered Llanfyllin High School had broken EU rules to spend £500,000 to bus pupils to lessons.
Officials from the Wales Audit Office found that the school spent the money on subsidising the transport costs of pupils from outside its catchment area, including 149 from Shropshire and 38 from Powys.
Although the move goes against a policy introduced by Powys County Council in 2008, school governors and councillors have maintained the local authority were aware of what was going on.
