Published Thursday 29 June 2023 at 15:33
A report recommending the withdrawal of some designated school bus routes from the south of the borough to Bolton will be discussed at Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Executive Board meeting next week.
Executive Board councillors are being asked to change the home to school transport provision to schools in Bolton from 2028, to bring it in line with the Council’s current Home to School Transport policy.
No pupils who currently travel on the Council’s designated school bus services from Blackburn with Darwen to schools in Bolton, or those due to start in September 2023, will be affected.
The proposal would affect two routes only – the 480 and 925 services – following consultation earlier this year around four bus routes that serve schools in Bolton. Services 925A and 975 would be unaffected, as they do provide transport to pupils from Blackburn with Darwen who are currently eligible for free home to school transport.
Whilst these routes are still operating, the proposal is that fare-paying pupils who also want to travel on these designated school bus services should continue to be allowed to use these buses too.
Councillor Phil Riley, Leader of the Council, said:
The Council only has a duty to transport children to school who are legally entitled to receive home to school transport due to eligibility i.e. attending nearest suitable school, or low income and the 925A and 975 school services fulfil this duty and will remain in operation.
The 925 and 480 routes provide a service to children who are not legally entitled to receive home to school transport. This is a council service that does not exist for children in the rest of the borough, so in the interests of fairness, it’s proposed that these services will cease but only when current pupils, including those who are joining in September 2023, have ceased to require the service which could be as late as 2028.
In this way, the decision will have no negative impact on current pupils during their time in secondary education. We think that this is a fair solution for all the school children in the borough.
The Council consulted with parents of current and prospective pupils using the existing transport, and other bodies, via an online consultation that ran from 6th March until 19th May 2023.
This news release relates to item 9.1 on the agenda for the Executive Board meeting on Thursday 6 July 2023 – the report and appendices can be found online.