Shropshire Star

School bus charge of £800 a year is simply ridiculous

Regarding school transport from Highley to Oldbury Wells School for sixth form students:

Published
Oldbury Wells School, Bridgnorth. Photo: Google StreetView.

We are totally shocked at the spurious and unrealistic cost of £800 for using the school bus for the year. How can Shropshire Council justify this extortionate sum? Where does this figure come from? This is a blatant rip-off and is making a profit out of children’s education.

The bus is never full, seats are available, and it travels the route daily, providing transport only for school children to Oldbury Wells, Bridgnorth.

Surely school transport should be free of charge for all ages. This situation is made worse with the Government insisting all 16-plus must be in further education, but parents are hit with having to pay for their transport costs. Yet another burden for families.

We moved from the London Borough of Barnet and through TFL (Transport for London) our sons would be entitled to free buses and trams within London. Shropshire Council provides nothing, despite having one of the highest council taxes in the country.

This £800 becomes more ridiculous when looking into alternatives, for my son to use the regular bus it will cost £29.50 for a monthly pass which can be used on other local bus services and weekends. Sadly, Highley only has an hourly service, so having a car is essential.

Had we not found an alternative to the school bus I would have driven my son to school, clogging already busy roads especially the tiny lane leading up to the school. This would have gone against all my principles of driving children to school unnecessarily.

To make things worse, the school and Shropshire Council did not suggest alternatives but were content for us to pay the £800 for the school bus. Shropshire Council needs to review its policy regarding school transport and perhaps lessons can be learned from TFL.

John Titlow, Highley

Shropshire Council response:

A spokesperson from Shropshire Council said: “Shropshire Council’s contribution scheme has been in place for some time and the terms and conditions of this scheme are published each year. We continue to support travel for post-16 transport but at the same time this has to be achieved within limited budgets and this can’t necessarily be compared to what TFL provide, as their funding structure may be quite different to that of a rural authority.”

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