Spare Seats Scheme row reignited as home to school transport axed

Parents of children set to lose their bus ride to school have criticised the county council for its 'computer says no' attitude.

Oxfordshire County Council is withdrawing its Spare Seats scheme for pupils travelling from Middle Barton and The Bartons villages to Chipping Norton School. 

It follows a furore last year when the council scrapped the scheme on nine routes, affecting more than 200 children including at Wheatley Park School, The Warriner in Bloxham and Wood Green in Witney.

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The council says the scheme, which allows parents with children not eligible for free home-to-school transport to pay to use spare seats on school buses, is no longer cost neutral.

Warriner School parents offered to pay £75 extra but lost the service (Image: Contributed)

Dan Coates, whose daughter is at Chipping Norton School, said between 55 and 70 children take a coach and minibus every morning from the Bartons villages.

He said: "The nearest school to us is Heyford Park School which hasn’t got the spaces. The next nearest is Marlborough School in Woodstock which is always oversubscribed and then Warriner School which is in the same position.

"Chipping Norton is the partner school to our village primary school and in the same trust. It says it has got spaces for the children and is probably a mile further than Heyford Park."

The families have been paying £800 a year for seats through the scheme but, Mr Coates said, a letter from the council said "we’re not going to do that anymore because the eligible children are leaving school and we’re not obligated or will negotiate on providing a bus service for your children.

"A little statement on the bottom says we are pleased to inform you that Pulhams will provide a service for a cost of £1,150 per child per year.

"That is £175 a month per child. Some parents have three children starting in September, that's over £500 a month. They quite literally don’t know what to do."

Fiona Walker and her children were affected by withdrawal of the scheme (Image: Contributed)

He added: "You feel absolutely powerless. The council says it’s expensive and the cost of living crisis means we just can’t afford it any more. What are we paying our council tax for? That cost of living crisis is affecting parents isn’t it?"

Mr Coates, who also has a son at the village school, said it is not practical for him to drive his daughter as he starts work at 8 o'clock and "at quarter to three in the afternoon all of us as parents are working".

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And "it's not very green sending 50 or 60 cars to Chipping Norton every morning", he added.

"It’s very much they’ve come to a decision computer says no," he said. "It’s incredible that no one’s looking at this. It’s not one child. It’s 60 or 70, a coachload. What do we do - not send them to school?"

Oxfordshire County Council said in a statement: “While the county council will no longer be directly running home to school transport on this route from September it has recognised that this will affect some families and has negotiated for Pulhams to operate a commercial bus service, with families purchasing seats directly from Pulhams.

"This will be a dedicated school bus service exclusively for pupils, and not available to members of the public.”