County Derry pupils left without transport after bus route lapses

The parent of one school pupil left without transport last week has hit out at the 'unacceptable' handling of the route by the Education Authority (EA).

Their son, who attends St Mary's PS, Greenlough, was left stranded last Monday morning after the bus did not arrive for its morning route.

After contacting the school, the parent was told the EA had only contacted the school on Friday afternoon to inform them the route would not be running on the Monday.

However, after they phoned the bus company who had previously run the route, it was revealed the EA had known from the beginning of term that it was a temporary arrangement.

“I contacted the old bus service first who told me they only had agreed to it for six weeks, just to pull out the school,” the parent told the County Derry Post.

“I then rang the Education board, and they weren't a bit nice at all on the phone to me. They said they put it out to tender last week, so they knew it was only in place for six weeks.

“I said it was totally unacceptable, they are schoolchildren – I've one in primary school and one in fifth year and they both get that bus.

“She said there was nothing she could do about it; there was no coming or going with her and they were either going to have to walk, or not go to school, which is ridiculous.

“There is no street lighting and no footpath. You can't expect children of that age to walk over three miles in the morning.”

Cllr Martin Kearney assisted the family.

The family's home is 3.2 miles from the school, well over the EA's two-mile threshold for the provision of free school transport.

The parent – who is a nurse - said the EA had a responsibility to ensure children's safe passage to and from school.

“I told them I've a duty of care to my patients in the hospital; you've a duty of care to these children to get them transport to school once they are over two miles,” they said.

“I didn't care whether it was a taxi or what it was, as long as my children got to school; I didn't want their education to suffer.”

After being left without a bus service for two days, the situation was only resolved with the intervention of local councillor Martin Kearney, alongside Patsy McGlone MLA, both of the SDLP.

Though another temporary solution has now been found, Cllr Kearney said better planning was needed to deal with these issues.

“The withdrawal of school transport provision at very short notice in St. Mary’s P.S. last week was unacceptable and a cause of major disruption,” he said.

“It is the responsibility of the EA Transport Department to provide travel assistance to those pupils who live two miles from the school.

“Advanced planning should exist to foresee and alleviate any difficulties in home to school transport. I am glad that a successful outcome was achieved after much pressure being exerted.”

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Principal of St Mary's PS, Mr Martin Meehan, who worked alongside the local politicians to help resolve the situation, said the 'disruption' the incident had caused last week was 'unacceptable'.

“We are a rural school and many of our families rely heavily on the bus service to ensure our pupils travel to and from school safely,” he said.

“The disruption caused last week by the EA transport department is not acceptable and we will continue to support our entire school community to ensure a bus is secured for the future.”

The Education Authority confirmed the route had been without service for three days.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, this service did not run between 17 and 20 October, however our Transport Team worked hard to appoint and put in place an alternative operator from 21 October," said a spokesperson.

"We have a range of contingency measures in place and we work very hard to minimise any potential disruption to parents and pupils.

"We operate the second largest transport fleet in Northern Ireland, and similarly to other transport operators, will experience occasional disruption or changes to services from time to time.

"It isn’t always possible to arrange alternative transport straightaway, particularly at short notice and depending on the circumstances combined with the industry shortage of drivers but we aim to inform parents of any disruptions with as much notice as possible, and try to put in alternative arrangements as soon as we possibly can."