50 signatures reached
To: East Sussex County Council
Save our school bus
Earlier this year East Sussex County Council proposed to axe some of its free bus services for children to save £78.5m.
The changes mean children will only receive free transport to their nearest school. Before, children also received free transport to schools further away in the catchment area.
The council said it could not justify subsidising the longer journey with the cost involved. It means children in Herstmonceux will get free transport if they opt to attend Hailsham Community College but will not get the subsidy if they go to Heathfield Community College, which parents claim could add up to spending more than £500 on public transport per year.
Parents angry at the proposal have presented a petition with almost 200 names to the county council asking it to reverse the decision. The campaign group said it has been gathering support from parents as well as from headteachers whose schools will be affected. Parents criticised the council’s response to the consultation which they claim showed more than 90 percent of respondents opposed the plan. They also say the scheme could mean one school will become over subscribed while others could be left with half-empty classrooms.
Parent Jennie Mackay said: “All we are asking is the council looks properly at the decision they have made. We are trying now to amass a case to put before the council when it meets again at the end of the month in the hope they will see sense and reverse the decision.”
Fellow parent Matthew Davis said: “The policy is particularly unfair on parents who have already made the choice of where their children are going to go to school next year – and then they get hit with a massive bill just to get them to the school gates.
Also now they are proposing the proposals to remove the three buses, 267, 268 and 269,
and replace them with what is called a “closed” bus service. This means that provision will only
be available for those students for whom Heathfield is the nearest school. The other key issue
for all families, if the proposals are implemented, is that the cost to parents will increase
greatly by approximately £5 per week in travel costs. Please take time, therefore, to respond
to this consultation to express your opposition in order to ensure that there is no weakening of
the already poor transport provision to Heathfield Community College
Why is this important?
Because parents can not afford the £20.00 a week for the bus fares especially if they have other children coming through the system.
The council state that we should send our children to the nearest school, which is not my sons preferred choice and also it is mainly sports and my son has is own sport outside of school, he much prefers going to a school that specialist in performing arts, drama etc. If all the local children went to the local school it would be massively over subscribed with pupils that do not want to be there, we would then have another problem later on in life with under learning.
