By
Peter Law posted on WalesOnLine website 15/4/2013
A Welsh city council is set to
investigate if it can afford to provide free transport on public buses
for pupils at schools across Cardiff instead of using private coach
contracts.
A review has been launched into whether free transport to and from school could be provided to every pupil in Cardiff.
Cardiff
council is investigating if it can afford to fund a trial for the
city’s 50,000 schoolchildren to ride for free on bus services with the
general public. It is one of six options being considered as part of a
review into alternative ways the council could provide home to school
transport.
Wales’ biggest local authority spends £2.5m a year
transporting 5,200 youngsters through 85 private coach contracts. This
doesn’t include children transported by taxi.
Councils are obliged
to provide free transport for secondary school pupils who live more
than three miles from school or more than two miles for primary
schoolchildren.
Labour-run Cardiff also provides “discretionary”
transport for 2,000 pupils who live within the distance limit but
attend, for example, a Welsh-medium or faith school.
Councillor
Ralph Cook, cabinet member for transport, said the contracts with coach
firms were unaffordable. He wants to see if some, if not all, of the
coach routes could be stopped by having schoolchildren travel on regular
bus services for free.
As well as a cost-saving, Councillor Cook hopes
it will encourage the city’s youngsters to continue to use public
transport once they leave school.
“If we were creating a culture
of public transport use through taking kids to school I could see a
significant benefit, but we are not doing that,” Coun Cook said.
“We are offering a bespoke coach service from home to school - it’s not public transport.
“I
have spoken to children and they all tell me they do not use buses
because they are not cool, but they are perfectly happy to use coaches.
“But
if you grow up using public transport all the time, whether it’s cool
or not does not become a part of it, it’s just how you get around.”
In
an attempt to allay the safety concerns of parents, the council will
look at placing school bus escorts who currently ride on the contracted
coaches on certain bus routes.
The cost of providing free bus
transport for all 50,000 pupils would be “enormous”, Coun Cook said,
but many live close enough to walk or cycle. Talks will also be held
with operators such as Cardiff Bus to see if they would be prepared to
transport schoolchildren before and after school at vastly reduced
fares.
“It’s in the bus company’s interest to get kids on a bus
for the whole of their school lives because they then will grow up to
be fee-paying adult passengers,” Councillor Cook said. “If bus
companies are able to run their routes now without running significant
losses, could they be persuaded to provide cheap seats to kids? It’s
extra bums on seats and extra pennies in the coffers.”
Peter
Heath, of Cardiff Bus, said: “From our point of view we think it’s a
sensible move where there is duplicity between a school coach and the
local bus network. We carry children of all ages to and from
school as it is, so you are just moving children from one designated
service to another.”
Councillor Judith Woodman, leader of the
Liberal Democrat group, said: “Clearly they are looking to save money,
but we do have to put the safety of children first. As long as
it is safe and gets them to school on time, whether it’s Cardiff Bus
that provides it is, I think, pretty irrelevant. What we do not want is
children having to change bus.”
The council recently axed £52,000
in funding for two discretionary coach services which transported
children from Caerau attending St Francis Primary and pupils from St
Mellons attending St John Lloyd RC Primary.
As part of the
review, the authority will look at whether it can afford to pay for the
pupils affected by the cuts to travel for free on existing local bus
services.
Another option in the review is for children to pay the
fares themselves with the council funding a bus escort to support them.
One of the two options will be trialled this year. According to a
report to last week’s cabinet meeting, any wider changes to school
transport are unlikely to be introduced before the start of the 2015
school year and would be subject to consultation.
From www.walesonline.co.uk
