The leader of Warwickshire County Council has been accused of ducking difficult questions over his "crazy ideas" to reduce spending on home-to-school transport.

Last week – at the start of half-term – Cllr George Finch wrote to education secretary Bridget Phillipson MP (Lab) to request scope for councils to set their own eligibility criteria for council-funded transport.

A national standard currently applies with children aged under eight eligible for council-funded provision if they are two miles or more from their nearest available school place. That distance is three miles for those over eight. 

With the bill for such provision almost trebling from £17.2 million in 2018-19 to projections of more than £50 million this financial year, Cllr Finch argues there should be leeway to increase the distances "where it makes sense to do so in a local area", particularly in shire locations where distances to the nearest schools can vary widely from town to town.

He said 16 per cent – more than one in seven children – could lose automatic eligibility if the distance was increased by two miles and while that was caveated with a commitment to "assess the potential impacts" and complete necessary consultations, the backlash over eight-year-old children having to walk up to five miles each way to get to school was widespread. 

Ms Phillipson accused Reform of heading back to "Victorian" ages and the unhappiness lingers at Shire Hall with Cllr Keith Kondakor accusing Cllr Finch of dismissing out of hand practical concerns.

"It seems a no-go," said Cllr Kondakor.

"The minister said it wouldn't work and has talked about the idea going back to Victorian times. None of the other political parties at Shire Hall would accept such a change so I don't know why he hasn't come out and committed to taking another look. 

"It should be withdrawn. It is not going to happen so it is time to put minds at rest, acknowledge the massive opposition to this plan and say it is not viable.

"It is a problem that we need to solve but I am most annoyed that it wasn't proposed at a cabinet meeting – other people could have asked the question if it was.

"You can't scrutinise something that is just put out on social media, particularly if he (Cllr Finch) doesn't reply to questions there."

Asked what response he had received from Cllr Finch, Cllr Kondakor said: "He told me to have a nice day.

"I am really annoyed. We tried to stir up a response and get some action and he just ignored the problem.

"We find this a lot from the leader, anything that is in the difficult category gets kicked into the long grass.

"We will eventually have to take this to scrutiny or full council to discuss it. Why not come to a decision now?

"There is a public consultation on home-to-school transport open now and this wasn't part of that – you cannot consult on new plans and then have this parallel exercise pushing out crazy ideas, it just doesn't work properly."

When asked what solutions he would offer to the bulging costs, Cllr Kondakor called for more joined-up thinking to ensure the right pupils get places near to home, particularly those who have moved into new housing or need to change change school mid-year.

"I don't think we have enough data, I have asked for more data from (council) officers and hope to get that this week," he added.

"We need to understand where this is a problem and where the increases are. Most people live within a mile or two of their local primary school and two-to-three miles of a secondary school, there are lots of them around. 

"I want to understand whether this is an urban or rural problem, whether it is down to new housing – I think it is but without the data you don't know how much of the problem is down to that.

"I have a new school with 25 classrooms on my patch in Weddington. It opened in September with five classes per year group but only year seven is open. 

"Anyone else from year eight up could find themselves without a school place if they move into a new house. It is mad to have a school 80 per cent empty if we are also paying for people to drive their children to school in Hartshill. 

"We need to stop doing things in silos. We have the right school places – just – and we have the right pupils, they are just not assigned to the right places.

"If we are going to write to ministers, we should be asking for improvements to the admissions system to cope with the new housing."

Cllr Finch has been approached for comment.