Cut To Subsidised School Bus Fares Proposed

Proposals to cut subsidised school bus travel in Wrexham have been slammed by members of the Wrexham Independent Group.

Towards the end of last year councillors voted to increase school bus fares by up to 50%. After only several weeks of the new increases coming into effect fares will once again be under the spotlight. Members of the scrutiny committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the proposed new criteria for the ranking of Supported Public Transport Services and funding of transport services put forward by a Task and Finish Group.

Last month a reduction in funding was made to The Local Transport Services Grant and the Bus Services Operators Grant. Both reductions will have an impact on the sustainability of the bus services currently subsidised by the grants.

Cllr David A Bithell, Leader of the Wrexham Independents has stated that the proposals to withdraw all subsidised school buses could see children ‘stranded at bus stops’.

He continued: “Only recently school bus fares were massively increased by Wrexham council by 50% from April, and then weeks after decide to cut them all together.

“This new administration said education was its top priority, so much for that when they are planning to withdraw all school buses effecting hundreds of children travelling to schools each day”.

The proposed criteria for the ranking of supported public transport services is weighted on a number of factors – cost of subsidy per passenger, usage, areas of deprivation, contribution to the network and presence of alternative services (the latter having the highest weighting).

One of the main areas to be affected by the proposals is the discontinuing of funding for School Special Services (discretionary school transport for fare paying, non-qualifying pupils).

We caught up with two parents (who prefer to remain anonymous), whose child until recently was one of the pupils travelling in one School Special Services buses. After the fare increases were imposed they decided to take their child off the bus service, and also raised safety concerns with the current provision:-

“When you factor in school dinners with bus travel the increases may not sound like much, but they are starting to pinch.”

“We recently took our child off the bus service in light of the new changes and pre-existing safety concerns. Some of the younger children have to stand on the steps of the double decker bus whilst travelling which is not right.”

The full details of the report can be found on the Wrexham Council website: https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/MinutesData/HomesEnvCom/Reports/HCCS5513s.pdf