Bus nightmare as children forced off school services and onto public transport

PARENTS in Barford say it’s “a nightmare” trying to get their children to school safely and on time.

After years of travelling safely from the village to Stratford-upon-Avon School on the 257 school coach, some youngsters have been turfed off the service and left to find their own way via public transport.

Parents said there was no discussion or explanation from Warwickshire County Council (WCC), which manages school buses, and this caused chaos at the start of the term.

They added that calls and emails went unanswered and there has still been no clear explanation – although some parents believe it’s about cost-cutting.

Many mums and dads were also fuming that “mismanagement” of the school coach timetable. The specially laid on 257 school coach service doesn’t actually get their children to school in time for the first bell at 8.40am.

Cheryl Ranner, who lives in Barford, has two daughters who’ve been travelling on the 257 school coach for three years. They’ve been switched to the No. 15 public bus, without warning. To make things worse, the bus passes for the girls, who are in Year 9 and Year 10, didn’t turn up in time for the start of term.

Cheryl called and emailed WCC several times since 1st September , trying to find out what’s going on. Originally, she was wrongly told the 257 service had been discontinued. And although she’s been repeatedly promised someone will call her back, no one has, she said.

She has also had to fork out £60 in bus fares for her daughters to travel to and from Stratford on the No. 15 for the first 10 days of term – it’s a service which takes a much longer route to Stratford and takes twice as long.

Cheryl, a careers adviser, said: “We’ve been passed from pillar to post by Warwickshire County Council – I’ve sent multiple emails and called multiple times and not once has anyone from the bus team called us back to explain what’s happened.

“It’s created a two-tier system, where some children get the benefit of an air-conditioned coach with their own seat guaranteed, while others have to get public transport without a a seat and that takes twice as long.

“It takes my children an hour each way to travel to school, whereas on the school bus it was 30 minutes.”

She added: “My youngest child’s friends are all on the 257. They’re 13 so they have a gossip on the bus, and she’s really upset to be missing out on all that – she is at an age where friends are everything. And my Year 10 is going into her GCSEs, so this is all very stressful for her.”

Kate Robinson also lives in Barford and her 14-year-old daughter has a place on the 257 school coach.

However, she said it’s often late, so pupils on the bus miss the first five or ten minutes of the school day.

Kate said he pointed this out to WCC but not had a reply. She believes more school buses are needed so that they don’t have to pick up from so many villages along the way, adding “it could be fixed quite easily with some forethought”.

She added: “So far this term they have been late on more days than they’ve been on time. I haven’t had a response to my original email, but I am planning on sending another.

“We’ve been giving it a week or two to see if it worked better than I expected. Sadly not.”

Another Barford mum, described how she was also having “a nightmare”. Her Year 10 daughter has taken the school coach 257 to Stratford for three years but her son, just starting Year 7, was given a place on the No. 15 public bus.

She said she contacted WCC to try to get him moved to the 257 but now both her children have been moved to the 15, leaving her son the only one of his classmates in the village not to be travelling on the school bus.

WCC was contacted for comment, which we will add to the article.