Wait goes on for bus fate
PARENTS campaigning to save a school bus face yet more waiting after it was left off this week’s Cabinet agenda.
A campaign group to protect a free school bus from Bollington to Tytherington was set up after Cheshire East Council bosses approved proposals to reclassify five walking routes to schools as ‘safe’ and withdraw the buses.
And in July, members of the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee agreed with campaigners that the route along the Middlewood Way, from Bollington to Tytherington, was too dangerous for students to walk alone, and made recommendations to Cabinet to improve street lighting before scrapping the bus.
But the matter was not discussed at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting as hoped, and campaigners will have to wait another month to hear of its fate.
Manny Botwe, headteacher at Tytherington School, said the matter should have been high priority at the beginning of the school year.
He said: “We’re disappointed the Cabinet have decided not to discuss the bus in September.
“It just prolongs the wait for families.
“The decision could have been done and dusted at the start of the school year but now will just drag on.”
He added that he has written to parents to encourage them to continue the campaign.
He said: “We want to make sure we’re back on the campaign trail and make sure the cabinet carries out the recommendations of the scrutiny committee.”
The matter affects around 200 children at Tytherington School and Poynton High School, and nearly 100 students at Fallibroome will lose their bus once a new crossing is installed on Prestbury Road.
Bollington ward councillor Amanda Stott, who also backs the campaign, said she could understand the wait was ‘frustrating’ for parents but urged them to attend the next meeting.
She said: “Parents are starting to make decisions about next September’s intake and I am sure everyone is frustrated but this is a long term decision which is too important for a knee-jerk response.“
A spokesman for the council said: “It has never been on a meeting agenda for this month. It will be discussed at the next committee meeting on October 18.”