Bus firms will offer credits or refunds to parents

TWO school bus firms have said that they will offer credit or refunds to parents who have pre-paid bus fares.

Both Confidence and Roberts have said that they will be offering parents credit for next year or refunds for pupils that finish their education this term.

LeicestershireLive contacted the companies after another local firm - Beaver Bus - told parents they would not be refunding them despite services not running during lockdown.

Roberts transports pupils to and from Loughborough Grammar School, Loughborough; Ashby School, Ashby; King Edward VII Academy, Coalville; De Lisle Academy, Loughborough; Market Bosworth School, Market Bosworth and South Charnwood High, Markfield.

Parents of pupils at some of the schools that both firms serve had raised concerns stating that they were struggling to contact the companies and were worried about whether they would be able to get their money back or credit for next year.

One said: “Some parents pay daily, weekly or termly. They haven’t had to pay for buses throughout this but those of us who pre-paid have been. It’s not fair and I just hope they are going to do something.”

Mike Lambert, operations director at Roberts Coaches, said: “The problem we have had is that until a week or ten days ago we didn’t know what year groups would be going back and when.

“We are a commercial operation and last week had to make the difficult decision to not run services this week, we were looking at three passengers on an 86 seater bus and that’s not commercially viable.

“We’ve been operating with some staff on furlough and in uncertain times.

“Now that we know that the services are not running, we will be working through and offering credits to those who will be back in school next year and refunds to those who finish this year.

“We have 2,000 bus passes, there is a lot of work to do.”