Wiltshire Council’s latest cuts to bus services have had an impact across the county border – affecting residents and school pupils in Swindon Borough area.
Following the withdrawal of subsidies, from August 4 there will be a new timetable for the 80 route from Swindon to Marlborough. One of the buses cut is the 7.10 from Swindon which got pupils from along the A346 – and especially Chiseldon – to St John’s Academy each morning.
That caused alarm among parents and schoolteachers. But the cut also affected care workers coming early in the morning from Swindon to care homes in Chiseldon and Badbury.
Chiseldon’s new councillor on Swindon Borough Council, Jenny Jefferies, has been working with local MP Robert Buckland to find a solution. They have succeeded in persuading Stagecoach to run a service from Swindon for the care workers – but only as far Chiseldon.
Councillor Jefferies told marlborough.news: “The new service won’t tie in with school times, but it will protect the most vulnerable in the care homes – many are very vulnerable – and many of these care workers have extremely long service in these homes. They are not just temporary workers. Parents going out of the Swindon catchment area have been left high and dry.”
The problem first became public in May when St John’s Academy’s Director of Logistics, Martin Cook, sent a letter to parents (May 22) telling them about the changes on the route: “As this is a pay-to-use public bus, we have no record of how many St John’s students use this bus service…” The letter went to all parents with a post code that might be affected.
One student who uses the 80 bus every school day, did a survey and found that 44 students use it regularly – as well as 27 members of the public. The 44 figure may have been low as some students were then sitting their GCSE exams and would not have been using the bus.
It is certainly more than the number of passengers Wiltshire Council claimed used that early morning service. But there may be a confusion here. The numbers using this bus to St John’s from beyond the Wiltshire boundary is said to be just eleven students.
It is thought that once Wiltshire Council stopped subsiding the 80 route as a service for St John’s students and used their own contracted buses, the numbers taking the 80 bus declined sharply and it became uneconomic.
Parents north of the county line are believed to be considering hiring their own minibus for the school journeys. Another alternative that has been under consideration was for children to be driven to Liddington to catch Service 48 to Marlborough. This is presently a Thamesdown service, but will change to a Stagecoach West service on 29 July – due to Wiltshire Council choosing a cheaper contractor.
School transport is becoming increasingly expensive. The Wiltshire Council Post-16 Transport Scheme now costs £781 a year (or £231 if your gross household income is less than £20,819 in 2018/19.)
Marlborough.news has been trying to contact St John’s on this issue – and will report later how parents have resolved this problem.
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