School bus services in danger as fees increase

School bus services used by thousands of children a day could be cut or parents left facing a £330-a-year rise in fees under plans to axe around £550,000 of funding.

The Green Bus, set up by Wolverhampton businessman Ian Mack, is set to lose half its grant from transport authority Centro from September.

Parents would be forced to pay up to £330 a year more per child, on top of £600 they already pay, or services may have to be cut.

The company today called for the planned funding cuts to be reconsidered.

It currently takes children to Wolverhampton Girls High School, Colton Hills and Smestow School in Wolverhampton and other schools in Birmingham such as King Edwards.

Mr Mack, a former geography teacher who founded the Green Bus company in 2005 and serves 14 schools across the West Midlands, said: "Centro wants to limit the amount it gives us to provide half-price fares to £270.

"It wants the Green Bus to make savings of £500,000 but we think it could make that saving by looking at the budget for children's fares as a whole across the West Midlands."

Green Bus offers children wi-fi internet access so they can play computer games and update Facebook.

Centro spokesman Mark Langford said: "Under Centro's concessionary fare scheme for children the level of reimbursement given by the taxpayer to Green Bus is currently around

£600 per child per year. This compares to around £300 for other operators."

He said negotiations are ongoing with the bus firm.

Angela Steatham, aged 48, of Westbourne Street, Walsall, whose 15-year-old son Charles Mugglestone, goes to King Edwards VI Aston, said she would have to consider moving him to another school if the school bus service stopped.

She said:?"Charlie would require that he leave home at 6.40am and walk, take a bus, walk, take a bus, then walk – over one hour and 15 minutes. I would be devastated and would have to consider a different school for his sixth form studies or a house move."