Parents and local councillors say problems with a north school bus service are putting pupils in danger.
The school bus service from Milton to Tain, both in Ross-shire, was changed after the summer, leaving some pupils to walk home along a busy road.
The Stagecoach service, operated by Highland Council, used to travel north from Invergordon, through Milton, and stop at Ken’s Garage in Kildary to pick up local school children.
It picked up more pupils at Arabella than continued up the A9 to Tain.
However, in June, parents were told the route had been amended to cut out Milton. The new route calls at Kildary at 8am, leaving some parents to shuttle their children to the bus stop in the morning.
After school, the Milton school bus doesn’t stop at Ken’s Garage and instead calls at Lamington crossroads at 4pm.
This week, the council said the route was being reinstated “as an interim measure” – but now railway work is cutting out some stops too.
Dark, wet and unsafe route home
Angie Cox’s 16-year-old daughter, Laura, is one of half a dozen pupils getting off the bus at Lamington. Mrs Cox collects Laura at the bus stop but fears for other pupils’ safety, especially as the nights draw in.
“I understand the issues with making the route viable,” says Mrs Cox. “I’m happy to take Laura to the bus stop and pick her up, but many parents don’t have that option.
“In the winter months, it’s dark, wet and horrible outside. The Tain Royal Academy uniform is black. We bought Laura fluorescent clothes to help her be seen but teenagers don’t like to wear that kind of thing. I’m worried there will be an accident.”
While some pupils stay on the bus until it eventually comes back round to Milton, this doesn’t get them home until around 5.30pm.
No consultation, says local councillor
Tain councillor Derek Louden says the road is not safe for pupils to walk home. “Making pupils walk on 60mph roads with no lights and no pavements in the dark in winter doesn’t seem safe to me,” he said. “We have a ‘Safer routes to School’ team. They might have helped had they been asked.”
At a meeting of the full Highland Council last week, Mr Louden asked if the Safer Routes to School team is always consulted on changes to school bus services.
The council says the Safer Routes to Schools team is consulted if there’s a road safety concern. The school is not consulted but is informed.
Mr Louden believes the procedure has fallen short in this case. “The first I knew of the removal of the service was when parents contacted me to say their children hadn’t been picked up on the first day back to school,” he said.
“After checking, I found schools didn’t know, parents didn’t know, pupils didn’t know. On safety grounds, schools should be consulted on changes, they could have told the transport team which pupils would be affected.”
He added: “This system needs to change before someone gets hurt.”
Will full service resume?
A spokesperson for the council said that Milton is not in the catchment area for Tain Royal Academy, and council policy does not provide transport to pupils from outwith the catchment.
Mrs Cox claims the family was told they could choose between Invergordon and Tain for secondary, and they picked Tain because it is slightly closer.
Regarding the bus route, the spokesperson said: “The bus which previously ran from Milton to Tain was withdrawn in August as part of a route revision, as there were no entitled pupils using it and the transport unit had no pupils in the Milton area on our passenger list.”
The council said it has since reinstated the Milton school bus service as an “interim measure”.
However, work on the railway line means the B817 between Milton and Kildary is closed to vehicles until 14 November. The bus will not be able to run between Invergordon and Kildary. The council advises Milton pupils to go to Kildary to catch the bus.
Mrs Cox says she received a letter from the school indicating the service will be scrapped again from next summer.
Local councillors are due to discuss the problems with the school bus service at a meeting on Monday.
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