A number of parents across Bridgend have been left frustrated after being told their children must make their own way to school. A change in rules means that one year seven pupil must make their own way to school, despite the council already paying for a taxi to pick up his older brother from their family home.
Meanwhile another parent has said their daughter is expected to walk nearly three miles to school because they are inside of the three mile cut-off zone. According to Bridgend Council's Home to School or College Transport Policy, "The Welsh Government has defined the statutory ‘walking distance’ as two miles for primary aged learners and three miles for learners of compulsory school age receiving secondary education."
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Jenna Rees, 35, from Gilfach Goch has been fighting for her child to be given council transport to a Welsh-speaking school for the last two weeks. Two days before her 11-year-old son was due to start school, she claims she found out through a taxi firm that no transport would be provided by Bridgend County Borough Council - despite the council already paying for the same taxi to pick up her oldest son from their family home.
She said: "We’re stuck at the moment and my son can’t go to school. My son is autistic and has ADHD, so we’ve been preparing him for the transition to Llanhari Comprehensive for the last two years. He needed more help to settle in."
Jenna's youngest son was due to start Llanhari Comprehensive on September 7, but she claims two days before he was due to start she found out he wasn't listed with the taxi firm for free transport. After speaking with the school, she claims she was informed that Bridgend council had stopped transport for Bridgend children to travel to Rhondda Cynon Taf schools.
She said: “We’re worried about how he’s going to cope if he has to go to another school because we’ve prepared him to attend this school for the last two years. He's missing out on the vital first days where children make friends - those first couple of weeks is when you make bonds. It’s the social side of things he’s also missing out on as well as his education."
"If I send him to another Welsh school, the closest one is 40 minutes away from us. It’s important to carry on the language. I went to a Welsh school, and so did my sister and my oldest son. It's just a family thing we do."
With work commitments, the family isn't able to drive their youngest son to the comprehensive school every day. Due to a schedule change Jenna has been able to drive her son in the last two days but is unsure how he'll be able to attend school next week.
Jenna lives on the Bridgend side of Gilfach Goch, therefore according to Bridgend County Borough Council, her son does not qualify for free home-to-school transport to a school outside the Bridgend catchment area. Jenna said: “Gilfach Goch is unique with the river, but I feel like they have no common sense there. They should be looking at this as an individual case, not as a whole county issue. I don’t think they realise how an autistic child will cope with just being handed over to another school - you can’t do that to an autistic child.”
A spokesman for BCBC said: “Far from restricting access to Welsh-medium education, Bridgend County Borough Council provides full support to pupils who wish to attend local Welsh-medium schools, including free home-to-school transport for all eligible pupils. However, if parents chose to educate their child in a school that is outside of the county borough, they must accept that free home-to-school transport, unless expressly identified in our School Admissions Policy, will not be provided.
"As regards pupils with additional learning needs (ALN), we cannot comment upon specific individual cases, but can confirm that home-to-school transport is offered to all ALN pupils in cases where there has been an assessed need to do so." You can read more of our stories from Bridgend here.
Over in Litchard, Richard Dymond, 50, says despite living more than two and a half miles away from his eleven-year-old daughter's school in Brynteg, she would not be eligible for the free bus service and would either have to walk or pay to get to school because they are inside of the three mile cut-off zone.
This means she has been expected to walk almost three miles to and from school each day, since she began her first few weeks of comprehensive school. Software developer Richard says he was shocked to find out the distances children were expected to walk each day, particularly with what he claims to be a number of inconsistencies with the rules.
He said: "When I found out that my daughter was expected to walk over two and a half miles each day before and after school I was a little shocked. It is a good distance for an eleven-year-old to go on foot and it would take her more than an hour each way to complete the journey.
"When you factor in the winter months when there is rain and bad weather conditions, plus carrying heavy book bags and PE kit, I think it is a lot to manage, so we'd like to see a change with the policy, even if it's just to raise the age for the free bus to 14.
"As it stands being inside of the cut off we have three options, which is either she walks, we drive her, or she uses a local private bus service, which costs around £60 a week.
"What makes that even more frustrating is that some students who live in the same area are still eligible for a free bus because they started Brynteg before these rules came in to place. Their younger siblings are also eligible for the free bus, but because my daughter is an only child she is not, which doesn't seem fair at all."
Richard and his family say they also have concerns about the safety of the walk given that the route from their home in Litchard takes a direct route through Bridgend town centre. He added: "From what we've been told, children inside of the three miles are expected to walk to school if there is a safe walking route, but the definition of that has never been fully explained to us.
"It's given us further worry to see the council announce that they have received £750k worth of funding to improve safety in the areas she will have to walk through, so in light of that we really feel it should be re-assessed.
"We also hear constantly about plans to cut emissions and get more cars off the road, but if more parents have to drive kids to school instead of using the buses already there, then it does seem like a bit of a contradiction to that. Overall there just seems to be a number of factors with this service that are unfair, and need to be addressed for my daughter and others like her."
A spokesman for BCBC said: “Bridgend County Borough Council has one of the most generous learner travel policies in Wales. While there have been no boundary changes, a revised Home-to-School Transport Policy was introduced in September 2016 which meets all of Welsh Government’s legislative requirements.
"In situations where someone does not meet the eligibility criteria for free school transport, parents have a legal responsibility to make suitable travel arrangements between home and school for their children, or to decide at what age it would be appropriate for their child to walk to school. Various independent assessments of walking routes to school were commissioned in 2015, and this work concluded in 2019. The available routes are not dependent on the recently announced ‘Safer Streets Fund’ as this is a separate initiative."
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