Scrutinising the Council's Figures

North Yorkshire Council’s original proposal only presented theoretical savings, completely omitting any realistic estimate of implementation costs. S.T.A.G. created these independent, evidence-based models to close that gap and make the true figures available for public scrutiny.

Built on official council data, grounded in real geography, and open to everyone.

Where does this data come from?

Our models use official council figures, published policy documents, and real local transport data.

Budget Simulator

Financial Model

Closes the gap in the Council's proposal by adding the real-world operational costs they left out, revealing the true bottom line.

What It Is

An open, public financial tool built by S.T.A.G. to calculate the real year-by-year costs of the proposed transport changes from 2025 to 2033.

What It Does

The Council's original proposal claimed savings without modeling implementation costs. This model factors in those missing expenses:

Phased Transition: Older children keep their existing transport rights, preventing immediate bus cancellations.
Replacement Taxis: Cancelling main bus routes forces the remaining eligible children onto expensive private taxis or minibuses.
Appeals & Overhead: The administrative and legal costs of processing hundreds of parent appeals.

How It Works

The model runs the Council’s projected savings alongside these overlooked operational expenses. Anyone can adjust parameters like taxi rates or appeal volumes to test different scenarios.

Robust & Transparent Findings

Even under highly conservative assumptions, the model demonstrates that implementation costs are likely to exceed projected savings, creating a net deficit for the council. The tool is 100% transparent and open for public testing.

Launch Financial Model Simple Overview

Map & Route Simulator

Spatial Policy Model

Tests how changing school travel rules impacts village communities, route efficiency, and transport costs.

What It Is

A route mapping tool that simulates pupil travel across rural villages and local schools.

What It Does

It directly compares two different policies:

Catchment Policy: Keeps village children together on shared buses to their traditional school.
Nearest School Policy: Splits children up based strictly on distance to their nearest front door.

How It Works

It fills available vehicles (buses, minibuses, and private taxis) for each route and checks how splitting pupils across different schools increases the overall number of vehicles required.

Ground Truth Logic

Uses realistic village maps and pupil numbers. Even assuming best-case conditions for the council, the model clearly demonstrates that splitting routes drives up vehicle costs.

Launch Policy Model Simple Overview

Demanding Accountability

Our financial modeling shows that because the Council omitted realistic costs from their proposal, their expected savings are quickly wiped out. Even under conservative scenarios, implementation expenses are likely to exceed savings, leaving the public with higher costs and worse outcomes.

We invite councilors, parents, and journalists to test the figures themselves.

Launch Financial Model Launch Policy Model Contact S.T.A.G.