Pupils miss out on free school bus by 160 metres

A FAMILY have been told their children are no longer entitled to free bus travel to school – because they live 160 metres too close.

The Howard family live in Comiston – 2.9 miles away from their catchment school, St Thomas of Aquin's.

They currently receive free transport as they live more than two miles from the school but new rules after the summer will extend the minimum distance to three miles.

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Local councillors say they have been inundated with calls from worried parents about how their children will travel to school, with many saying the routes are too dangerous and too far for young people to walk on their own.

This leaves parents with the option of buying a bus pass – which cost 28 per month for a child under 16 and 35 for over 16s. Parents have set up a Facebook group called "bring back two mile bus pass".

Mike Howard, who lives in Pentland Crescent, will be faced with paying travel costs to send both his daughters to their catchment school, which is in Chalmers Street, Lauriston.

If the family lived just round the corner at Fox Spring Crescent, they would be exactly three miles away from the school and would qualify for the free travel.

Mr Howard, 41, said: "We are the outlying part of the catchment so it's affecting a lot of people who live here and at Buckstone.

"They may as well have just added an extra 56 to my council tax every month."

Around 200 Boroughmuir High pupils have also been hit by the new rules.

Tracey Murray, 42, will have two children at the school after the summer holidays and believes the route from Buckstone is too long and unsafe to walk.

She said: "It's an unmanageable walk for children, especially when they have heavy books in their bags.

"The road is also very busy and the cars travel at 40mph so it's too fast for them to stop if children walk out on to the road.

"I would rather spend the money on other things to help my children's education than paying for travel."

Another parent, Gordon Kinnear, 46, said he will have to take his children to school by car as he cannot afford to pay the travel costs from Fairmilehead to Firrhill High in Oxgangs.

He has three children – one who is at Firrhill and twins who will start next year.

He said: "I'm effectively looking at a pay cut to pay for this and we can't afford it.

"The only economic option is to take the car and that's only going to lead to the roads being even more clogged up."

Councillor Ian Murray said: "You can't ask kids to walk to a school that is 2.9 miles away.

"I agree we need to have a policy of drawing a boundary around where people would get free travel, but to arbitrarily change that boundary puts pressure on family budgets.

"People are sending their kids to their catchment school, so they're doing everything right but they are being penalised for it."

A spokesman for the city council said: "We have a statutory requirement to provide transport for pupils living further than three miles away.

"Unfortunately, in these difficult financial times, that is all that we can afford to offer."