Pupils lose out in bus service cutbacks

8:36am Monday 12th May 2008

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PUPILS will face problems getting to and from a York secondary school from today, following bus service cutbacks by First.

Kevin Deadman, the head teacher of Canon Lee School, said about 20 students from Skelton have traditionally used a First bus to get from the village to school each morning, and back again in the afternoon.

But as part of a controversial raft of cuts introduced across York yesterday by the city's biggest bus company First, the peak-time service from Skelton into York is being slashed.

Mr Deadman said this could pose some difficulties, although children should be able to take a service which ran just after 8am from the village, operated by Veolia.

He said if pupils faced delays in getting home, they could stay on at a school homework club.

He said because the pupils lived less than three miles from the school, they were not entitled to free school transport.

Coun Richard Moore, whose City of York Council ward includes Skelton, said the service cutback was not the authority's fault, but he would like to see it take action promptly to try to deal with the matter. He said commuters were being hit by the cutbacks as well as school pupils.

A council spokeswoman said on Friday that it was aware of issues surrounding the reduction in services at Skelton, which would affect about 400 passenger journeys per day, some of them involving pupils.

"We are looking at, and costing, a number of possible solutions that will balance the travel needs of as many of those affected as possible," she said.

"Aside from the difficulties that we face in identifying where the funding will come from to address the problem, another issue that we have faced is that bus companies are only obliged to give the council eight weeks notice of their intention to change the services that they provide.

"This means that we have only had since the middle of March to work towards identifying a solution and that we won't have anything in place by Monday, when the changes come into effect."

A First spokesman said: "A rival bus company operates an alternative service for these schoolchildren."