School Bus Mix Up By Council Left Children Stranded

Schoolchildren were left stranded today after a school bus failed to turn up – due to a misunderstanding over term start dates.

Some pupils at Droxford Junior School were late for lessons on the first day back after the summer break.

One parent said: “Hampshire County Council’s School Transport department is supposed to notify bus companies about school opening times but apparently failed to do so.

“It’s a bit of a case of ‘you had one job….’ It was a first day at a new school for a whole year group which can be quite scary when you’re seven so you’d think they could have got this right…”

A Hampshire County Council spokesperson said: “We work closely with transport providers to ensure that pupils have safe and reliable transport to and from school. All of the transport providers that we contract are provided with the term dates ahead of the start of the new academic year.

“Typically transport arrangements go to only one school, however, the organised transport commissioned for Droxford Junior School also serves Swanmore School, which had an INSET (training) day on Thursday 2 September. This led to a misunderstanding and the coach not setting out to collect children attending Droxford on Thursday morning.

“We sincerely apologise to the pupils and their families who were affected by this. We can confirm that the issue was rectified in time for Droxford Junior School pupils’ transport home to Meonstoke on Thursday afternoon.”