Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

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scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by scary mum »

Good point Amber, we get free transport to the nearest "suitable" school if it is more than 3 miles away. I think a lot of money is spent on taxis. The consultation is infuriating, just like the one recently about closing the recycling centres (aka dump). The questions are worded to ask a perfectly reasonable question like, "would you mind your child travelling on public transport" - well of course not, but if the question had been "Do you mind us taking about your free transport & charging you £650 per child (asmost schools aren't on a public bus route)" they might get entirely different results.
scary mum
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by Amber »

scary mum wrote:he consultation is infuriating, just like the one recently about closing the recycling centres (aka dump).
But where will you get your furniture and household items if they do that? (Gove)

scary mum wrote:Good point Amber, we get free transport to the nearest "suitable" school if it is more than 3 miles away. I think a lot of money is spent on taxis.
Do you pay huge amounts of council tax to fund all this? It seems a very expensive policy.
kenyancowgirl
Posts: 6738
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by kenyancowgirl »

It is similar in Warwickshire, Amber, except they will pay only to the closest comprehensive, over 4 miles - the consultation to remove buses to anything over that (some people choose a different school than the closest, because rural vagaries mean it is easier to get to, for example) - was so flawed as it was a questionnaire online that asked you to make choices each time and basically forced everyone to say, for example, that the money should go to pensioner bus passes or SEN provision, with no free text option. They used that to remove Grammar Schools (even if they were a person's nearest school) from the transport options and tighten up the minimum mileage from a school etc.

I know it doesn't help to say - well, we have to pay, so you should, when you are faced with paying for something you haven't paid for in the past, but I suppose the way to look at it is, well we have got it free up to this point.

Crossed with scarymum/Amber
kittymum
Posts: 925
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by kittymum »

Bucks only provides free transport to the closest school - if Grammar qualified that means grammar or upper. If not qualified it means upper. My children are at their closest catchment school (which happens to be a Grammar). A non catchment upper is deemed to be 300 meters closer to us so we aren’t entitled to free transport. I pay for them to go on the school bus which runs through our village. Ironically if I chose the non catchment upper they would provide a free taxi to take my children there.

We hav no public transport- over 2 mikes down unlit roads with no pavement to closest bus stop. I would happily use public transport if it existed!

Think it’s appalling that they are considering changing for children with SEND.

Edited to say I pay £870 per child for them to go to their closest catchment school.
Last edited by kittymum on Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by scary mum »

Kittymum, I think you mean appalling rather than appealing? :D
scary mum
kittymum
Posts: 925
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by kittymum »

scary mum wrote:Kittymum, I think you mean appalling rather than appealing? :D
Oh my! I do!! Will edit!!
BucksBornNBred
Posts: 1031
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:01 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by BucksBornNBred »

Amber wrote:
scary mum wrote:he consultation is infuriating, just like the one recently about closing the recycling centres (aka dump).
But where will you get your furniture and household items if they do that? (Gove)

scary mum wrote:Good point Amber, we get free transport to the nearest "suitable" school if it is more than 3 miles away. I think a lot of money is spent on taxis.
Do you pay huge amounts of council tax to fund all this? It seems a very expensive policy.
Apparently (according to the BFP) we spend £400k per month on taxis for children https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/1 ... one-month/
Dollydripmat
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:19 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by Dollydripmat »

Amber, we don’t get a choice , have an upper with 1000m of my house , however my DD1 and soon to be DD2 will travel a few miles and I pay at the moment £700 for one ! The bus we have is not fit for travel.....a local taxi company supplies the bus.....it’s about 15yrs old, no heating and the driver has driven into a tree whilst the front window caved in.....he drove on as he didn’t notice.......headphones on. We have complained and complained to county and we still have the same bus and driver........last week he drove past a 6th formers new fiat 500 and scaped the entire side of it. The girls took pictures and reported it to the school.....we still have the same driver and bus! It’s appalling the lack of standards with how much we are all paying for this bus! Dolly xx
statsdad
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:29 am

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by statsdad »

BucksBornNBred wrote:Apparently (according to the BFP) we spend £400k per month on taxis for children https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/1 ... one-month/
Many of those travelling by taxi will be children with disabilities travelling to their nearest special school. They may have learning difficulties, be unable to talk, be incontinent and need to travel with escorts for safety as they may have epilepsy, tube feeding or oxygen equipment.

There are some shared minibus services for children with these problems - but some will be the only child in a particular area travelling to a particular school so it may be impractical to have a shared service collect them. This could make the journey too long for a number of the children.

So the article should perhaps replace the following...

"...figures show the authority spent £426,144 on private taxis ferrying children to and from school in September."

With

"...figures show the authority spent £426,144 in part on fulfilling its statutory duty to help some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our society travel to school in safety and comfort".
anotherdad
Posts: 1763
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:33 pm

Re: Bucks County Council transport consultation now live

Post by anotherdad »

+1, statsdad.
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