Sue McGrane
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@johnhoppy 14926 wrote:
“Ensuring that their child is ready and waiting for transport at the appropriate time and place. It is the parent’s responsibility to accompany the child to and from the vehicle”
Whilst this policy is fine for children of primary school age, you can not be serious if you expect secondary school age children to stand by a bus stop holding hands with their parents.
Agree 100% Johnhoppy – and I’ll add that ‘accompanying’ the ‘child’ would not have made a blind bit of difference in this instance – the bus drivers could not take children without a bus pass that (a) a lot have never had, and (b) no one knew it had suddenly become compulsory to show, under pain of their contract being withdrawn.
As said – this chaos is down to the council. They made a decision and failed utterly to inform those that would be directly affected by it – its an example of appalling communication and inconsiderate behaviour. It has caused a massive amount of inconvenience and an awful loot of unnecessary worry.
By the way – I was told that a bus pass for my daughter would be here today – not a bloody sign of it!
The children affected were secondary age – not of an age where they would be happy for parents to wait with them at the bus stop – and that would not have prevented the drivers refusing to take them. I went on the councils website for school transport on Tuesday, after my child had been turned away – ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION of bus passes. I had actually checked the schools website, the day before, as I think its fairly reasonably for me (or anyone else) to expect to find notifications of anything affecting schooling there – but the council had not bothered to notify the school, either.
The reason the council are being blamed is because its the councils fault!
@johnhoppy 14859 wrote:
As an ex school bus driver I am appalled by the instruction given to the bus companies regarding Bus Passes. If a bus driver left children at the side of the road as a result of his/her decision there would be (rightly) an unholy row, and the distinct possibility that the driver would not be driving school buses again. Yet the council are instructing the bus companies to do just this, with the threat of the cancellation of the contract if their commands are not carried out. In all the years I was driving buses I have never known all pupils to have bus passes from day one, and it was always customary to allow a few weeks lee way for bus passes to be issued to every pupil entitled to one. Whoever issued that instruction should not be in a position involving children ever again, as they do not care about their safety or welfare one little bit.
Here, here – I am so disgusted that Wrexham Council actually clearly instructed companies NOT to pick up kids on pain of losing their contract – no excuse, the most dull witted would instantly understand that instruction would mean that children would be left roadside. Absolutely disgusting behaviour, and I agree with cmaj76 that the person responsible for issuing that instruction to the companies should be sacked.
UPDATE !
I finally managed to get through to Edward Reid at the council. Bus passes are to be issued, but until then, children at Morgan Llwyd WILL be allowed to travel as normal on the buses, starting from this afternoon – Thank goodness for that – and thank you Wrexham.com, as I have no doubt that your coverage of this helped a lot :)
@BorrasBill 14843 wrote:
I can’t see what all the fuss is about. When my children went to Secondary School we were given a parents guide. (All year 6 pupils are given one). It says quite clearly that you must apply for a bus pass, which I did and they carry them every day. Admittedly they have not been asked for them, but I presume they had no problems today as I always make sure they carry them.
It seems common-sense to me, you can’t just get on a bus without a pass or paying, it would be chaos. How would the driver know who and how many there should be on it?
I had apply for access to school transport, and had a letter confirming that my kids were entitled. I have no recollection of any sort of pass? Very few of the parents at the school this morning did!
I sort of think that the fact that the kids are in uniform would pretty much confirm that they are pupils at the school – and the drivers will have been informed how many are to be collected at each pick up point, and able to keep track of how many on their bus?
No objection to my child carrying a pass if that is what is necessary – but being kept informed and being given the time to organise it BEFORE the child is refused entry on to the bus that they have always travelled on, should surely have been a matter of common sense for the council – or am I expecting too much of them?
WrecsamGirl – I’d agree. several years ago, Wrexham council sent out letters to parents in Summerhill/Gwersyllt, during the school holidays, informing them that children over the age of I think 9 would now be expected to WALK to Plas Coch school! The person who’s name we were given, to contact with any ‘concerns’ was conveniently on annual leave, and it caused so much stress and misery and a lot of campaigning before the council backed down.
They simply appear, in this department at least, to have absolutely NO consideration for the problems that silly decisions like this cause :(
@darryl 14837 wrote:
We’ve had quite a few people get in touch about this morning and are trying to follow it up. We have heard reports that people have been told they can collect a bus pass from the offices on the industrial estate or wait until Thursday when one would be delivered
Children Left Stranded After Bus Pass Confusion | Wrexham.com
It took me several attempts to get through to the council, Darryl – and unfortunately, for me its not possible to get to the industrial estate – nor was I given information on when it would arrive by post. At the school, I’d say about half the parents had been completely unable to even get through to the council to request a bus pass, anyway, because the lines were so busy.
And this doesn’t excuse the fact that they have caused an immense amount of trouble for a lot of parents by their actions, nor does it help those parents who are going to struggle to get their kids to school whilst waiting for the new passes – what about those who don’t drive/have access to their own transport?
I’d quite like a common sense explanation as to WHY the council have suddenly decided to implement this rule? What on earth has suddenly happened, after years and years of children not being required to have a bus pass, that could possibly explain why its so suddenly essential? The kids are in uniform, most are known to the drivers – it seems to be just a pointless jobsworth action, with no consideration given to those who are actually affected by it!
