No room on school bus - so Bristol pupils forced to walk five miles
A group of Bristol children had to walk more than five miles because there was no room for them on their school bus.
Becca Connor and Abigail and Tyler Johnston, from Lawrence Weston, trekked over the Avonmouth footbridge alongside the M5 and walked up through Pill.
-
They had almost reached St Katherine's School in Ham Green when they were picked up by their head teacher Stephanie Quayle.
"She thought at first they were bunking off," said Becca's mum Lin Connor. Now Mrs Connor and other parents are having to take time off work and rearrange their shifts to take the children to school by car until the problems are resolved.
Simon Johnston, father of Abigail, 13, and Tyler, 12, said: "It is a nuisance, but I need to know my children are safe."
St Katherine's business manager Laurence Frewin said urgent talks were being held with the bus operators to find a solution.
Mr Frewin said: "We can understand the parents' anxiety. We are looking at alternative arrangements to safeguard the students' welfare."
Bus firm Eurotaxis said it would alter its routes to ensure that all buses passed the busiest stops but this could not be done immediately because notice had to be given and procedures followed.
Mr Johnston, 37, of Badenham Grove, said: "Many parents like myself are working full time and rely on the bus service. The operator has a responsibility to get our children to school safely."
Mrs Connor, 45, a care worker, whose son Mark, 15, cycles to St Katherine's, said that after failing to get on the bus at Long Cross, Becca, 13, and her pals had run to another stop by the Hope and Anchor pub, but all three buses had gone.
The walk took them more than an hour before Ms Quayle found them.
Hundreds of children from Bristol travel by bus to the North Somerset secondary school every day, paying £3 for a return ticket.
The service is provided on a commercial basis and is not commissioned by the school, the city council or North Somerset Council. Lawrence Weston and Shirehampton are some of the last stops on the route before the bus takes the motorway bridge over the river.
Eurotaxis was last year running five services to the school, but has had to stop two of them because of restrictions placed on the operator by the Traffic Commissioner.
Nailsea firm North Somerset Coaches has taken over one route but the loss of the other has meant high demand for places on the remaining three 106-seater double-deckers.
William Sanzo, a manager at Eurotaxis, said the problem had been made worse because one of the company's buses was off the road and had had to be replaced temporarily by an 88-seater. We would like to put on an extra bus to run behind the other three and pick up any children who are left over, but we are not allowed to.
"We are doing everything we can by using the largest double- deckers you can get. Our drivers issue the right number of tickets for the number of seats on the bus, to make sure we never overload," he said.
Traffic Commissioner Sarah Bell earlier this month refused Eurotaxis' appeal to be allowed to run more than 11 services at any one time.
She strongly criticised the firm, saying that after being called to three public inquiries since 2005 it should have been making stringent efforts to ensure that it was complying with licensing arrangements and not running illegal services carrying school children.
62 Comments
View all
by Chip Nicely, Upper Bristol
Sunday, September 21 2008, 10:54PM
“Do you noy have your butler tale the little scamps to their educational facilities?”
by Tracy, Bristol
Sunday, September 21 2008, 3:15PM
“Well Sandra, yet another chance to have a dig at the new Redland School. Hasn't the council built 'fancy new schools' at both Henbury and Portway in the past few years? not that you would know it now, looking at the state of them. And you would have had a much better chance of choosing one of those schools than the majority of parents in Redland will have of choosing their local school.”
by George, Bristol
Sunday, September 21 2008, 12:49PM
“Make them cycle. Buses are useless in Bristol, absolutely rubbish.”
by paul, bristol
Saturday, September 20 2008, 8:13PM
“i wonder why something like this goes on the front page everytime when "our poor angells" gets hit by the obvious system irregulations...why there's never enough space for those who actually run the buses themselves?how about a seat base flying out of emergency exit right at front of following car?or news papers flying all over m5 while "children" are having probably the one of the greatest moments of their life on the bus.well...i happened to be one of the unfortuned drivers that had to face problems like these above.i used to drive these 106 seaters to and from st kaths and all i can say is that it probably was the worst ever driving experience of whole of my driving carriere.at least 80% of these children i personally would classified as "definately NOT human beings".let them walk-maybe they learn something about RESPECT by the way...
p.s.carrying and responsible parrents? - yeah,wright...and good luck on that one.”
by Lin, Bristol
Saturday, September 20 2008, 2:34PM
“I cannot believe the negative comments on this issues. We chose to send our child to St Katherine's school because as 'responsible parents' we identified this school to be the most suitable educational establishment. We were told that a reliable bus service would transport our child to and from school at a price of £540 per year. What we got was unfit, unreliable, overcrowded buses. My son talks of horror stories of 12 kids sitting on 4 seats and others having to stand due to a lack of seats. This is an accident waiting to happen. There are a lot of narrow minded people, quick to criticize others 'choices' of schools and areas to live. Some of us do not have the luxury of choosing their working hours. It is really fair to expect kids to walk 7 miles over Avonmouth Bridge (in the dark during winter months) and potentially placing them at risk? I DONT THINK SO!! Well not if your a 'responsible parent'!!”
by david, stapleton
Saturday, September 20 2008, 1:57PM
“If I was the parents of these children I would be more concerned at the fact the the traffic commisioner has taken the licences from the bus company as this means they are not fit for the road. Note that there license removal did not make the newspaper, it was not first so it can't of been news.”
by Ron, Bristol
Saturday, September 20 2008, 12:39PM
“Rachel, you have completely missed the point and where on earth do i mention going private & having a nanny.
If you really want to know i took a pay cut of £8000 as i took a job nearer to home thus enabling me to look after and spend as much time possible with my daughter. My wife works for an Employment Agency and works that way to enable her to work around having kids. She goes to work early if working and i take my daughter to school and my wife picks my daughter up.
Our work is based around our daughter not us as that is decent responsible parenting.
We don't want trash like Plasma TV's , 8 holidays a year, an unnecessary 4x4, spray tans etc etc we just want the best for our daughter and have accepted that we have to make sacrifices until she goes her own way, blimey is putting the kids first too much to ask for from all parents?
If so no wonder the country is in such a mess.
Thank goodness i don't live in Lawrence Weston as it sounds like all the parents from hell are based there.”
by rachel, lawrence weston
Friday, September 19 2008, 9:17PM
“This has not been the 1st time the school and its buses have been hit. The bus had an accident on the way to school on day and a pupil was hurt, they have been known to overcrowd. My daughter attends the school and last term she and a load of other kids all walked homee together because the bus wasnt there to collect them. Better in crowds then alone in 3's. What bright kids they where not to bunk off and cause havoc somewhere. As for the people slating them they are either loners with no kids or friends and would sooner slate these kids and parents. Not everyones owns a car and to pay for the privelege of clapped out buses just so they can get an education. Unlike some we havent got loads of money to go private or pay for other s to take a taxi or get a nanny to take them. GIVE THESE KIDS CREDIT AND THE PARENTS FOR STANDING UP TO THIS. THANKS GOD THE HEAD ER
KNEW THEM AND THEY TRUSTED HIM TO GET IN THE CAR AND IT WASNT SOME PERVERT OR MAY BE THE RON'S IN THIS WORLD WOULD SOONER THIS HAPPENED !!!! well done to the kids”
by None-Ya, norf sumerset
Friday, September 19 2008, 8:56PM
“I can't believe this is on the front page, what a waste of my 37p. 5 miles, so what???? there's children much younger in africa who've got to walk treble figures everyday for a bucket of water. get a grip”
by confused, sea mills
Friday, September 19 2008, 8:03PM
“judging by the times of the comments posted, it would seem that none of you work!!!!”