Rural school buses

[charliewarlie]

In our village we have a small bus that takes all the kids from the farms to our local school. This passes my door 4 times a day. I have just rung to find out if i can get my daughter on the bus. To be in the catchment area you have to be over 2 miles apparently we are 1.9 miles so wont allow her on unless i pay £700 a year.

[network]

I would get in touch with your MP, the government are trying to encourage people to leave their cars at home and use public transport, yet here is a case of encouraging you to use your car

[cayo]

Jan 26, 2012 12:40:51 GMT charliewarlie said:

In our village we have a small bus that takes all the kids from the farms to our local school. This passes my door 4 times a day. I have just rung to find out if i can get my daughter on the bus. To be in the catchment area you have to be over 2 miles apparently we are 1.9 miles so wont allow her on unless i pay £700 a year.

we had the same with our kids when they were at school we had to pay catchment is catchment

[snapdragons]

In our village the minibus picks up the children for the village school as there are no pavements as it would not be considered safe to walk. Do you have pavements around your home and the school.

[cayo]

Jan 28, 2012 0:04:12 GMT snapdragons said:

In our village the minibus picks up the children for the village school as there are no pavements as it would not be considered safe to walk. Do you have pavements around your home and the school.

same rule as we came up against short route from our house had no path and was about 1 1/2 miles,long route did have path children nearer the school had further to walk as they had to pass our house to go via the footpath route they were maybe 800mts further away than us so they got to have the bus as they were just over two miles away from the school by safe route ours were just inside two miles away so had to walk or pay

[iluvmyponies]

I have the opposite problem, apparently I live too far away from my school to get a bus pass. I spend between £2 & £2.50 a day on getting to school, making it around £12 per week. It's a lot of money when it adds up.

[ccragg]

Where abouts in N Yorks are you? And what school is it? The person you need to speak to is Richard Thackary and put your case accross.

[Sasha]

Rules are rules! There has to be a cut off and 2 miles is it tbh 2 miles is generous as ours is 3 miles to qualify

[Louise Dixon]

In Scotland, there is something called a 'permissive lift' which means that if the bus is passing by you and it has a space on it, your child will be given a pass, although this obviously can be removed if a new child moves into the area on that bus route but further away. I can't understand why this isn't the case everywhere when we are being encouraged to use public transport.

[nia2311]

The rules round here are that you have to be 3 miles away too, so even though I lived 2.1 miles from school, I had to pay all the way through from Year 7 to Upper Sixth Form. I'm afraid that's the way the cookie crumbles... My son will be over 7 miles from his secondary school when he goes in Sept 2013, and we will have to pay for his fares also, as we will not be chosing our closest school (local school is frankly shocking!) However, we are willing to pay his bus fares to ensure he is at the best possible school. You could try writing to your local council etc. but in these days of austerity, they are trying to cut school bus subsidies even more so not sure you'd get much joy.

[kayjayem]

I think these bus services are a law unto themselves. When my niece and nephews were all at school the eldest 2 were at the grammar school and the minibus picked them up to take them to the village to catch the main bus into town. The 2 youngest were at the nearest primary 2 miles away which the same minibus serviced. They young ones weren't allowed on the bus even though it stopped at their house and went to their school. My sister asked if they could go on the bus and she would pay but they wouldn't allow it for "insurance reasons". She took it to tribunal and was told by one snotty woman "madam we are not here to babysit your children!" Bear in mind there is no public transport and no pavements along any of the route which is remote unlit country lanes so she had no option but to take them by car(bear in mind she worked for the same education authority and was based in the opposite direction!). Things seemed to improve when the youngest finally went to senior school and for a couple of years no problems until the eldest reached 16. Then he was no longer eligible for the minibus to take him from the school bus(2.5 miles along unlit narrow lanes with no pavement and no option of public transport) which was coming anyway with his younger brother but they would allow it if he paid £1600 What a load of beaurocratic claptrap!!

[Ziggy]

We live in a rural village and my eldest is now at Middle school. (Suffolk is one of the only places left where these still exist). Ruling is that you can get bus free if you live more than 3 or 4 miles away from school, which we do. If not i believe we would also have to pay about £700.
Think I may well put in complaint about Bus drivers attitude. He is dreadfull!! Bearing in mind most of the kids are about 10-12 years old, he constantly uses extremely bad language at other drivers, shouts his head off at children and drives like a maniac. (Followed bus once on my way to work). My eldest used to do Cello at school but gave it up as Bus driver made so much fuss about my son taking the instrument on the bus. I would take him to school but if I do it normally means I end up being late for work. Bus broke down once and madman driver left bus on the side of the road with children in (alone!!) while walked back to bus station.
So I think, Grrrrr don't get me started on rural school buses. They are soooo needed in rural areas but service is rubbish!!!

[charliewarlie]

Jan 28, 2012 11:50:19 GMT ccragg said:

Where abouts in N Yorks are you? And what school is it? The person you need to speak to is Richard Thackary and put your case accross.

Im in cowling our school is Cowling CP there is no pavements on our roads only right outside the school.

[ccragg]

charliewarlie,

pm me more details eg. childrens names,age etc and your contact details

[bumblebee]

Jan 29, 2012 10:59:40 GMT Ziggy said:

We live in a rural village and my eldest is now at Middle school. (Suffolk is one of the only places left where these still exist). Ruling is that you can get bus free if you live more than 3 or 4 miles away from school, which we do. If not i believe we would also have to pay about £700.
Think I may well put in complaint about Bus drivers attitude. He is dreadfull!! Bearing in mind most of the kids are about 10-12 years old, he constantly uses extremely bad language at other drivers, shouts his head off at children and drives like a maniac. (Followed bus once on my way to work). My eldest used to do Cello at school but gave it up as Bus driver made so much fuss about my son taking the instrument on the bus. I would take him to school but if I do it normally means I end up being late for work. Bus broke down once and madman driver left bus on the side of the road with children in (alone!!) while walked back to bus station.
So I think, Grrrrr don't get me started on rural school buses. They are soooo needed in rural areas but service is rubbish!!!

Don't even get me started on Suffolk school bus drivers!! One of my friends is physically disabled and has limited mobility - one bus driver told her that if she didnt get up the steps quicker in future he would leave her behind! I had another one when I was at upper school and getting the late bus home (the one which goes around all the villages so takes forever) - I was the last one on there when the bus runs out of fuel - surely the driver should have made sure he had enough to finish the job. Very scary for a 15 yr old girl to find herself stranded in the middle of nowhere in the dark with a male bus driver.

[emma3870]

According to our county council we live 2.97 miles away from my children's high school. The bus passes twice a day. We can't get passes as we are 0.03 miles too close to the school. We have taken this up with the council and also our local MP but have had no joy. Our parish council is fighting our case still as there is plenty of room on the bus. My girls are expected to walk 3 miles down unlit country lanes and cross two busy main roads to get to school and back. I share lifts with a neighbour atm as his kids aren't eligible either. In this day and age when they are all harping on about carbon reduction is just all b***ocks

[sageandonion]

Have you driven the journey? They may be measuring as the crow flies and you could argue that way.

[armada]

I cant believe this is still happening, I also had to walk as we were .2 of a mile out side the minimum mileage, and they refused to take the track which led to our farm into account - and it was a mile long.
It was all uphill, along non-pavemented lanes once I got up out of Oswaldtwistle, and to add insult to injury, the school bus passed me and stopped at The Shoulder of Mutton at the top of the hill, and kids got off! I lived past there, but they would have non of it, unless we paid £3 a day, and no way was that happening.
During the summer it was fine, but in winter it was awful, and quite frankly - dangerous!

[sophiea]

My bus driver is good but the wisbech bus driver shouts, swears and drives like lightning. One of the bus drivers gave a girl a half eaten mars bar with his pone number and name, he ONLY got moved on to a diffrent bus!