| “The
SELB has had to set aside £650,000 of its budget for
the incoming year (2004/05) to cover additional costs of pupil
transport as a result of a 10% increase in the sessional fare
proposed by Translink.
“Translink receives a third of its income from education
and library boards and appears to be able to increase its
charges arbitrarily, regardless of the rate of inflation,
to meet targets sets by their sponsoring Department –
the Department for Regional Development.
“With this monopoly position, education boards are unable
to negotiate with Translink and must find the 10% increase
by eliminating planned school maintenance or making redundancies.
“It is unacceptable that the rate for school children
will increase by 10% whereas the public using Ulsterbus will
face a 5% increase.”
The SELB has the largest pupil population (75,000 not including
students at FE colleges) of Northern Ireland’s five
education and library boards.
The Department of Education’s financial allocation to
the SELB for 2004/05 is £226,470,000, representing a
base increase of just 1.54% over 2003/04.
. |
