Parents from Chester villages raise concerns over lack of school bus service

One worried mum fears it will be "total disaster on the first day of the new term" as a result of the volume of students vying for seats on commercial services from Saughall and Mollington before facing the same problem when changing routes in Chester city centre.

Parents from the two villages have contacted The Standard to express their concerns about the issues they say their children will face when trying to get to and from Upton-by-Chester and Bishops' Blue Coat high schools when pupils return next month.

They argue that current public transport provision is unsuitable due to the number of children travelling from Saughall and Mollington, meaning it would be impossible for them all to make it in on time.

Ward councillor Simon Eardley says children have faced this challenge for several years and is concerned about the stress it causes them, particularly over the winter months.

During the Covid-19 pandemic Government funding facilitated a direct Stagecoach bus service to enable social distancing, with parents paying for their children to travel.

That funding has come to an end and as a result the service has ceased.

Parent Michelle Collins, from Saughall, claims there was no communication from the council regarding the service ending, meaning many families have been unaware while new parents to the schools were under the impression that there was a permanent direct service in place when applying for places.

She is urging the local authority to help facilitate a solution before the start of the new term.

Cheshire West and Chester Council told The Standard it understands the concerns raised by parents and "will continue to engage with schools and bus operators to assist in the process of finding a solution".

However, the local authority says its school transport policy supports children who attend their nearest qualifying school where this is over three miles away, adding that the policy is "clear" and "applied in a consistent manner" across the borough.

Michelle, who has children at Upton, said: "We have been trying to have discussions with transport for a number of months about the ceasing of the school buses from Saughall village to our catchment schools, Upton High School and Bishops High School.

"We feel as though we have done everything possible in terms of sharing our concerns, but Cheshire West and Chester Council simply won't talk to us.

"The children will have to use public transport from September. A total of 160 children and other regular service users travelling to work will be competing for seats on the half-hourly, 40-seater single deckers that will be leaving the village each morning.

"Even if we put our children on the first buses at around 7am they would not all clear the village until after 9am and of course they would then need connecting buses in town to get them to school.

"We believe that the situation is also going to impact on the residents of Saughall – as well as the areas near the schools – as without buses it is likely to force an additional one hundred cars onto the roads each morning and afternoon.

"And of course, keyworkers who don't have flexibility are going to be greatly affected as they will not be able to get their children to school without capacity on public transport.

"Cheshire West and Chester Council did not inform the schools that the bus was being removed, we had to. The whole thing is a very serious concern.

"Not only for the safety of our children, the disruption to education as they will not be able to get to their catchment school on time each day, but also issues for other people within Saughall who need to use the public buses.

"It will be a total disaster on the first day of the new term."

Another Saughall resident Sharon Beddow said: "I have two children attending Bishops' High School in September, and I am concerned that the current transport that Stagecoach provides is not suitable for the number of children leaving the village to access town, or even a direct bus to their school.

"Recently because of government funding Stagecoach have provided a bubble bus taking children directly to school. The bus would start at the top of the village, travelling through The Ridings and on through Blacon, to the interchange in Chester and on to Bishops.

"During the time the vehicle was funded, Stagecoach started to provide a double decker bus as numbers to Bishops was so great.

"As far as I am aware, Stagecoach will not be providing any extra transport to accommodate the number of school children attempting to get to school.

"The village has no specific links with a high school. However, it wouldn’t matter which high school we choose, all options require effective and suitable transport to town."

A parent from Mollington added: "The problem here is that there is no safe way now for the children from Mollington to use public transport to get to school independently.

"This is a safety issue and feels like it will be an accident waiting to happen. Although a direct school bus would be the ideal, I just really need a way for my 12-year-old to be able to get to school safely – even if that does mean catching two public buses.

"There isn’t even a safe way for them to get to Saughall safely to catch a bus from there, because they’d still have to contend with the Parkgate Road.

"I appreciate that Bishops is not our nearest high school – although it is a feeder school to the primary in Mollington – but when deciding on a high school the decision was made based on ability for our child to get to school, as was the guidance, and at that time, there was a bus!"

Ward councillor Simon Eardley said: "For several years there has been a challenge for secondary school pupils from Saughall and other surrounding villages getting to school safely and in reasonable time to start the academic day.

"During the pandemic crisis, financial support from the government meant a much improved service with additional capacity. This is coming to an end and won't be in place for the start of the new academic year in September.

"A typical day for a student from Saughall can start well before 8am and then end well after 4pm, involve four bus journeys – assuming they can get a seat owing to major capacity challenges – and considerable anxiety around safety, particularly during the winter months.

"There are hardly any safe routes for walking or cycling that are reasonable from the village to Upton High School or Bishops and parents are faced with the choice of sending their students on multiple journeys that start and end in the dark or driving them themselves, assuming they have the means to do so.

"Commercial bus services could be explored but the costs to parents of something like £20 per pupil per week is totally impossible, not least when the standard weekly passes for the bus services into the city and then out again are at least half that cost.

"This isn't acceptable and we need an urgent alternative solution with just weeks to go until the start of the school year."

A spokesperson for Cheshire West and Chester Council said: "Extra buses were deployed between September 2020 and July 2021 to shadow bus journeys that were known to normally carry large numbers of schoolchildren in order to allow for social distancing on buses as directed by the Government.

"Funding was provided by means of a Department for Education Covid grant, and the extra vehicles were to carry schoolchildren only.

"The council’s school transport policy supports children who attend their nearest qualifying school where this is over three miles away.

"The nearest qualifying school is defined as the nearest school to the home address that could have offered a place if parents had selected the school as a preference when submitting their application for a high school place for their child.

"Most children from Saughall village do not qualify for assisted transport under the policy.

"Local bus routes 15 and 15A operate a combined thirty-minute daytime frequency between Saughall and Chester. These journeys are operated on a ‘commercial’ basis by Arriva and Stagecoach and are not funded by the council.

"An additional bus from the village is provided by Stagecoach on schooldays to the city centre at 0735.

"The council understands the concerns recently expressed by parents and will continue to engage with schools and bus operators to assist in the process of finding a solution.

"However, the policy is clear about the provision of school transport, which is applied in a consistent manner throughout the borough.

"The council has had meetings and undertaken a pricing and availability exercise on behalf of the schools, the details of this have been shared and discussed and the schools intend to prepare a communication for the relevant parents on the subject."