Stirling Council has become involved in a discrimination row after school transport for a number of pupils was axed.
Angry parents hit out after discovering their children will be left with no transport to get to school from next week after the contract to offer the service was taken over.
Parents of pupils attending St Modan’s High say those who previously paid for school transport have now been told there will be no available spaces on school buses.
First Bus have had the contract to operate the service but from next Tuesday it will be taken over by Hunter’s Executive Coaches, based in Alloa, with no option for pupils to pay for a spot on the bus.
St Modan’s High is a Roman Catholic school. However, parents of children of other religions or none can make a request to send their children to the school on the understanding that they will not be offered free school transport as it falls outwith their catchment area.
Parents of pupils not entitled to free transport previously paid for the First Bus services to take children to the school, but it’s understood under the new contract with Hunter’s Executive Coaches there will be no option for children who previously paid for a spot on the bus to do so.
The change over will affect non-entitled pupils in Bannockburn, Cambusbarron, Cowie and Raploch.
Council officials wrote to parents of those children entitled to free travel earlier this month, detailing the changes. However, parents of pupils who are not entitled to free transport say they have been left in the dark.
Stirling Council said it recognises the change is going to “cause difficulty” for some children and families at St Modan’s High who accessed the service as fare-paying passengers.
A council spokesperson said that it was a “prioritising this issue” and insisted they were working with the operator to minimise disruption to affected children and families.
He added: “After First Bus gave their intention to terminate some of their home-to-school transport contracts across Stirling, we quickly moved to secure a new operator to ensure continuity of this free service for children. The tender was based on the capacity required for pupils entitled to free transport.
“This was the case with the existing contract with First Bus but extra capacity on the buses allowed pupils who chose to pay for travel to use this service.”
“We will continue to liaise with parents and carers through the school’s communication channels on this matter.”
However, First Bus said it unsuccessfully bid for contracts during the tendering process.
Commercial director for First Midland Bluebird Graeme Macfarlan said: “We have retained some contracts and lost out on others via this process, for which we re-applied for all work serving St Modan’s High School.
“Bids are made based on the commercial viability of these services and on this basis, we were unsuccessful on this occasion for certain services.”
The Observer was this week inundated with phone calls from upset parents over the shake-up.
Angry mum, Amanda Hamilton, from Whins of Milton, has a son in S3. She said: “It’s discriminatory against non-Catholics.
“We paid First Bus each term. We have passes that are paid up until June but now we’re just finding out that he won’t even be getting a space on the new bus.”
Another mum, who has two children at the school, who did not wish to be named, added: “We put our kids into St Modan’s because it’s a good school.
“We were quite willing to pay per year for transport, but this is moving the goalposts. I’m livid with the scenario.”
A third parent said she has a son in S5 at the school who suffers from an inflammatory condition as well as learning difficulties who will now struggle to get to school each day.
A fourth told how their autistic son, from Bannockburn, was placed at the school for its specialist autism provision and he will be unable to make his own way to the school each day on public transport.
