Cllr. Ross Penhale-Thomas (Ind, Maesteg West) has said that he will raise concerns about changes to home-school bus travel with the Welsh Government.
A recently-relaunched petition started by parents of children attending Cynffig Comprehensive has now received more than 1,000 signatures. A similar petition from parents living in the Caerau and Nantyfyllon area was submitted to the council in 2020 with no formal response.
The issue has also been discussed on the Bridgend Political Owl podcast/Youtube channel.
“Welsh Government received hundreds of concerns from across Wales last year – including Bridgend – and launched a review into school transport arrangements, looking specifically at walking distances. It was meant to report by March 2021 but nothing has been issued yet. The outcome of this review will inform any changes to school transport policy in Bridgend.
“I’ve written to the Minister for Education (Jeremy Miles) to raise the difficulties families are facing in Maesteg. I’m also working with fellow councillors Keith Edwards and Tom Beedle who are determined to highlight the impact on pupils and families. It can’t be that the most disadvantaged learners face the biggest barriers: what does that say about education being the key to achievement?”
– Cllr. Ross Penhale-Thomas
As of September 2016, Bridgend Council increased the distance a pupil needs to live from school to be eligible for free school transport to 2 miles for primary school pupils and 3 miles for secondary school pupils – the absolute maximum allowable in Welsh law (Learner Travel Measure 2008).
To put that in perspective, 3 miles (just under 5 km) should take a healthy teenager about 45-50 minutes to walk; cycling would be much quicker of course.
After the policy was introduced, several concessions remained in place – such as allowing siblings of pupils already receiving free home-school travel to be eligible themselves. However, home-school transport continues to run with a large overspend despite contracts with bus operators being re-negotiated.
Another matter – raised by Cllr. Penhale-Thomas – is that school buses are running with empty seats because they can’t offer “paying places”. All paying bus services have to meet disability accessibility regulations and the UK Government (who are responsible for vehicle regulations) are yet to decide if school buses will continue to be exempt.
