Parents have labelled a school bus service operating for St Modan’s High pupils as “ineffective and dangerous” as they call for action on the route.
The parent council at the Stirling school has raised concerns over the state of services for kids from Denny, as long as neighbouring areas including Banknock, Dennyloanhead and Dunipace.
Falkirk Council hold the responsibility for organising the buses for these pupils in the St Modan’s catchment – with local firm E & M Horsburgh contracted for the under-fire 651, 652 and 653 buses.
The parent council’s chairwoman Clare Malcolm told the Observer: “We have just had enough of the service being provided and we believe it fails on three areas – it is unsafe, unreliable and ineffective.
“There are children waiting to be picked up and the bus simply doesn’t turn up and then they are having to take a service bus in just to make to it school on time.
“The bus is also regularly late and there is often no communication with parents until they themselves decide to contact the operator to see when it will be turning up.
“Buses are not turning up until 8.45am at some points and so children are having to make their own decisions to get into their catchment school when they shouldn’t have to. One of the areas pointed out by Falkirk Council has been they are not contracted to run three buses, but instead provide a number of seats – so often two 75 seat buses are turning up instead of three 50 seaters.
“The issue that creates is that children will get on the first bus they see and a lot of them have 651 passes despite that service not being run, so you have 100 children trying to get on a bus designed for 75.
“Falkirk Council need to withdraw those 651 passes and change the passes to reflect the number of seats, so one bus isn’t undersubscribed and the other one oversubscribed.”
Complaints over the service have been escalated to both Falkirk Council and the operator – but the parent council say those responses have not been heard.
It has led to concerns over the safety for some kids in using the bus services in getting to St Modan’s from the area.
“Taxpayers are paying for the service and it is just not good unfortunately”, Clare continued. “You have wee kids coming into S1 and getting on a school bus for the first time, having to face some of these problems when they are already nervous about travelling with people that are grown-ups to them.”
In response, a Falkirk Council spokeswoman said: “We contract school bus services from Denny to St Modan’s High School. One of the services was discontinued in September, with pupils using the remaining services.
“We are aware that there may be some confusion regarding how these services operate and will update the information available to parents and the school.
“Recent monitoring of these services has not identified any issues with overcrowding.
“While there have been some isolated instances of vehicle breakdowns and occasional delays – some of which were beyond the operators’ control – there have been no concerns raised regarding the roadworthiness of the vehicles used.
“All vehicles operating on these services are required to have seatbelts. We will continue to work closely with the school and operators to ensure a safe and reliable service for pupils.”
The Observer contacted E & M Horsburgh but did not receive a response at time of going to press.