A potential 350 seats on school buses are at risk of being lost on school buses as the Isle of Wight Council cut back services to save money — leaving some parents with no alternatives to get their children to school.
Laid out in budget proposals in February earlier this year, the council announced ‘privilege seats’ would be reduced in a bid to save £321,000 from a new contract.
Fewer vehicles would be provided which could potentially see routes merged, minimising extra seats and ‘privilege seats’ available for non-eligible children.
Currently, the home-to-school transport contract is held by Southern Vectis, who run 32 routes across the Island, picking up and dropping off pupils, but it is due to expire at the end of the summer term.
The Isle of Wight Council has been asking potential suppliers to apply for the contract and will go through a procurement exercise to determine the specifics of the new services going forward.
A home-to-school service has to be provided for those who are eligible, just under 900 pupils on the Island, which the council said it will plan to continue but recently surplus seats have been losing the authority money and will therefore be ‘significantly’ reduced.
The council sell ‘privilege seats’ to those not eligible for free travel but would still like a place on the bus for a fee of £390 a year but it says it costs them in excess of £1,000 to provide that seat.
Approximately 350 privilege seats across 18 of the routes are sold to families to get their children to school.
With the ‘significant reduction’ of the seats, those 350 pupils could be at risk of not getting a remaining space on the cut-back services as seats are sold on a first come, first serve basis and no specific figures have been released about the remaining number of ‘privilege seats’.
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said:
“As part of the process we will seek to carefully match eligible passengers to vehicle sizes.
“Due to the tendering process for the new service there may be a variation in the capacity for privilege seats, and so precise figures cannot currently be given.”
Please stop draining our schools. Why doesn’t the council look for other ways to save money.. firstly stop all these holidaymakers coming here jamming our buses and using there oap bus passes, surely it would make sense to charge one flat price for say a weekly pass of £5.
Why don’t YOU use your child benefit and child tax credit to pay for YOUR choice of having children and then expecting others to pay for your choice, after being paid to have them?
It is not ‘given’ so you can buy a larger TV or sit supping coffee in a Café.
Holiday makers keep Island businesses running.
I know it was ‘some time ago’, but I used to catch the bus to go to school (this was a regular bus NOT a specially provided school bus).
Now, I appreciate that services provided by Southern Vectis on the Island Are not 100% comprehensive and this option is not therefore widely available. However, IF you have opted to send your child to an alternative school different to that allocated or outside of your catchment area, sorry, but it is YOUR responsibility to get Junior to school. IF however, your child has has been allocated a space outside of your normal catchment area by the Local Authority, then the Local Authority should foot the cost of getting that child to school.
Frank I agree with what you say.
Same should apply to all those with these children with ‘issues’. They have a special school built and equipped for these ‘additionals’, but many parents insist they go to mainstream schools.
They to should then pay for the childs additional costs of having to be taken too and then have a specially trained helper and specialised equipment in each schools that is then burdened with the parents ‘choice’.
Often these ‘additionals’ are disruptive to other children and as their parents get additional cash (no pun intended) then that should be spent on transportation, and help to pay for specialist helpers and specialised equipment.
Too many want their cake and eat it too.
They get extra money for having children, more if an additional needs, then expect others to fall over backwards to pay ever more to transport and cater for such when the standard school is already perfectly adequate for all of their needs.
Time to tighten the wasters in society’s belts now, UNLESS they wish to pay for what they bred and are getting funding for anyway.
The numbers in the acticle are worrying. Under 900 entitled children on 32 routes. That’s less than 30 pupils per bus, each of which is no doubt costing £50-60k per year. That’s £2k per child per year, or over £10 per schoolday. The parents buying seats aren’t covering the cost of those seats, and there are currently too many buses on too many routes providing too much capacity. It looks to me as if this retendering exercise is well overdue.
Andrew, if you saw how many ‘special needs, or additional’s’ or whatever they like to be know as now, arrive by private Taxi, all paid for by the state, or the Muslims getting free transport for faith schools then it would likely be even more shocking
Parents of special needs type get extra cash, but STILL expect the taxpayer to again fund ‘their’ choice of sending them to normal educational establishments.
This is often welcomed by the schools as they then claim additional funding from HMG, but again, WE are all paying for that too.
Without being insulting, most of these will be unlikely to gain meaningful employment where they will ever be in a position to pay back into the tax system, and most will be a drain on HMG aka the taxpayer from cradle to grave, so unnecessary expenditure should, imo, be cut to the bone on lost causes in these frugal times coming now due to CV.
Not just the specials, but on any children who are so disruptive and ruin learning for others, should all be educated at base level, as the cost of attempting more from those without the capacity is a costly waste and better spent on those who do have more chance of succeeding.
Not an issue if the parents of all fund it privately, so long as it is all.