Parents ‘let down’ by council over school transport

Lisa Church’s 12-year-old son Harrison is in Year 7 at Bourne End Academy, the family’s closest secondary in their catchment area apart from Burnham Grammar School.

However, the council does not provide a school bus from Burnham to Bourne End, claiming that it only helps provide transport for children attending their nearest school.

Lisa told the Bucks Free Press: “To us it seemed a bit bonkers that we had applied for our son to go into a catchment school, but then when it comes to transport, the council changes its rules slightly.”

She and other parents were forced to find alternative school transport for their children after Bourne End Academy told them in June that the coach service it previously provided was to be cancelled for this term.

READ MORE: Bucks parents face four-figure school transport sums

The council currently provides a minibus for children further up Lisa’s road to get to Bourne End, but her family live just a few houses over the postcode line.

The 43-year-old, who works in PR, said: “Annoyingly for us, that cut-off point is five or so houses further up. But I completely understand there has to be a cut-off somewhere.”

Families affected by the loss of the Bourne End bus were advised to apply to the council to see if their children would be eligible for free school transport.

School transport from Burnham to Bourne End was previously provided by E-ACT, the multi-academy trust responsible for the school as well as the former Burnham Park Academy, which closed in 2019.

Lisa said: “They always said that they would do that up to a certain number of kids needing to get the bus from Burnham and then they got to a point below that number.”

The parent said E-ACT’s cancellation of the bus was ‘fair enough’ as quotes for a replacement minibus were ‘huge’ and school budgets were ‘stretched enough’.

Lisa is now in a car-sharing group with other parents, who all take it in turns to drive their children to school.

The group looked at taxis but said that a local company would not take children under 12 travelling on their own.

Trains up to Bourne End were also considered, but the parents thought that a three-minute connection time in Maidenhead was too tight.

Lisa said: “It’s insane. The number of times a train is late, and the kids have only got three minutes to get from one platform across the bridge to the next platform, it’s highly unlikely.”

The parent explained that getting trains would mean the children leaving home at around 7:15am and not getting back until about 5:20pm.

She added: “When are they meant to fit in their homework and any after school activities and chill out like a child should be able to do?”

Bucks and parish councillors including Dev Dhillon, Carol Linton, and Julie Cook have fought the parents’ corner and tried to get Bucks Council to help them with their transport difficulties.

Lisa said: “We feel very let down by the council with regards to getting our kids to school.”

Steven Broadbent, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for transport said the unitary authority’s home to school transport policy was clear that support with transport costs to and from school can only be provided for children attending their nearest school.

He told the Free Press: “Under the terms of the policy, where a child is not attending their nearest school, they are not automatically eligible for council funded transport.

“This policy is in line with the arrangements for the vast majority of other local authorities who have responsibility for Home to School transport provision.”

The deputy leader also said that Bourne End Academy took its own decision to cease running the bus service it previously provided to and from Burnham.

He added: “The council had no involvement in this decision but will, as a consequence, discharge its duties in providing transport assistance to children who are eligible for support as outlined in our eligibility criteria.”