Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Bus services altered amid Covid fears
Changes have been made to a “packed” school bus service after the Gazette revealed pictures showing pupils crowding into aisles.
Alarming photos of youngsters “squished together” on a bus in Canterbury prompted worried dad James Barham, whose son uses the service, to raise concerns over the potential spread of Covid-19.
As reported last week, the asthmatic father, from Aylesham, said his Year 7 son’s bus home was regularly so full that pupils had to stand, while many were not wearing face coverings. “It’s scary,” he said. “They mix with people from other schools on the bus. They could have Covid and pass it to parents.” After the Gazette raised Mr Barham’s concerns with Stagecoach, the bus firm said it would visit to check on the service. Now, it says it has introduced another bus on the route. A spokesman said: “We’ve reshuffled our vehicle allocation to provide an additional coach that runs in tandem with the first 89 bus to Aylesham in the afternoon. That means both the scheduled buses to Aylesham are shadowed by another coach. “This took effect from last Thursday afternoon and there was plenty of space for all the children to travel back home.” Mr Barham said the service is now notably quieter, but suggested the issue should not have arisen in the first place. “It’s a lot better,” he said. “But why does it take for it to be reported for them to do something? They’ve had weeks - they knew when the kids were going back. Why didn’t they organise something before then?”