SOME parents will have to pay an extra £200 a year to send their children to school or college on education contract buses.
Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) has decided to increase the cost of ‘spare seat’ places from September this year.
Spare seat places are made available to pupils who are not entitled to free school transport on a first come, first served basis, providing there are no other bus services covering the same route.
The proposal was rubber-stamped at a meeting of the children and education scrutiny committee last Thursday, having been called in by Labour councillors opposed to the increases.
The annual charge for pupils under 16 travelling in their catchment area will increase from £265 to £375, while those travelling outside of their catchment area will have to pay £500 rather than £390.
Pupils more than 16 years old travelling in their catchment area would have to pay £700 a year rather than £500, while those travelling outside their catchment area would pay £740.
A CWaC spokesman said: “The increase in charges on both school and college contracts have been necessary to ensure children who will be entitled to assisted transport in September do not pay more than those children who take up spare seat places on the buses.
“These increases still represent good value for money. An under-16 pupil will still pay less than £2.65 for a return journey each day.
“Students travelling to colleges on spare seat places will be charged less than £4 for an average journey of 35 miles a day, which is considerably lower than that offered on commercial bus services.”
Cllr Pat Merrick, Labour spokeswoman for children and young people, says the timing of the decision has ‘left families facing huge increases without time to prepare for this further demand on their incomes’.
She said: “This is a lot of money to find for families already struggling in this recession, particularly in the context of recent cuts to the educational maintenance allowance.”
