By Charlotte Hall

Copyright manchestereveningnews

A group of councillors in Oldham are calling for free school travel for kids who are ‘falling through the cracks’ of the housing system. Inspired by a campaign launched by the Manchester Evening News, Councillor Shoab Akhtar and The Oldham Group are urging their council to fund crucial transport for children living in temporary accommodation. Almost 750 youngsters from Oldham are currently housed in temporary lodgings. Many are relocated miles away from their school settings, leaving struggling families to pick up the bill for a commute they used to be able to walk. Councillor Akhtar said: “Families in temporary accommodation are already under huge pressure. Living so far away from their children’s schools adds to their financial issues and to the stress of ensuring that the children get to school on time. “I know a number of families who have been moved to Manchester but their kids go to school in Oldham. Obviously, we haven’t got the housing stock to move them closer – but the least we could do is help by providing free transport.” His motion, due to be discussed at Oldham’s full council meeting on Wednesday, September 17, argues that ‘no child should be punished for their family’s housing situation’. Under current law, kids are only eligible for free school transport if they are moved more than two miles away from their placement, and there isn’t a suitable school nearby. But in Greater Manchester, it’s almost impossible to be more than two miles from a school. So homeless parents are often straddled with unexpected costs, or risk trying to move their child to a new school without knowing how long they might stay in one location. Akhtar, who works in housing, wants to see a scheme rolled out across the whole of Greater Manchester like the one proposed in this petition by the M.E.N . But he thinks ‘that could take time’ – in the meantime, he wants Oldham council to provide an interim solution for families who are often already at their most vulnerable. One Oldham mum, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she had sometimes struggled to get her son to school while temporarily housed at a hotel in Harpurhey . Her five-year-old still attended a school near Hathershaw, a two-hour walk away. “Public transport would have taken an hour and a half,” the 26-year-old said. “So I ended up having to get Ubers. I was paying £40 a day in Ubers to school and back.” It was money she didn’t have – and often ended up lending from family members. But the alternative would have meant two three-hour round trips a day for her, making it almost impossible to find time to look for solutions to their situation. She isn’t alone. This spring, 5,412 households were homeless in temporary accommodation across Greater Manchester.