Freedom of Information Act 2000 A
FOI 9814 – Responses shown in bold
I would be grateful if under the Freedom of Information Act you could furnish me with a copy of the completed audit into Beaver buses.
A specific audit in respect of Thomas Estley Community College students was undertaken in August to ensure that there were no students who had been issued with passes erroneously if they had changed schools over the summer.
The council has done several audits since then and it acts on any changes that have been notified through our Children’s and Family Services Department up to and including the week ending 10th November (with additional routine audits planned throughout the year). This has been for all schools and companies providing bus passes on commercial services and the council has written and withdrawn school transport where pupils are no longer eligible. The reports that are used in these audits are not retained (shredded after use). They contain personal information in respect of students’ names, addresses and dates of birth which cannot be released under the Data Protection Act.
Additionally (and again under the Freedom of Information Act) I would also like to be provided with the following:
1) A copy of the Beaver Bus Contract
There is no contract for the provision of a school bus service between the council and Beaver Bus. The council purchases season tickets on these commercially operated school bus services through a season ticket agreement. A copy of that agreement is attached.
2) A copy of the Council’s procedures/guidelines for considering who is eligible for assisted school transport. This should also include any associated rules along with details about how discretionary payments may be considered.
The eligibility Policy is freely available on our website at:
https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/education-and-children/school-transport/school-transport-for-5-to-16-year-olds/eligibility-for-free-school-transport
and a PDF copy is attached.
All of our policies can be accessed on our website including the Post 16 Policy statement, eligibility rules for SEN children and rules for the Farepaying Scheme for discretionary seats on mainstream LCC school contracts. The school transport home page is:
https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/education-and-children/school-transport
NB These points are primarily in regard to the Thomas Estley route from Whetstone, but apply equally to the Lutterworth College route from Whetstone:
1) Why haven't the roads been effectively gritted along the main school routes during the recent bad weather. The council is very quick to highlight how much damage missing one day of school does to the children's education and I would think that this would class as a priority within the gritting schedules in addition to all main bus routes.
The effectiveness of salt when applied to the carriageway to prevent and/or treat the formation of snow and ice is dependent on a multitude of factors that are not always within the control of the County Council. Rainfall subsequent to salting for instance can wash away the salt and then freeze resulting in ice; as was the case on the evening of Dec 14th 2017. In those circumstances further treatments are made as soon as practicably possible.
Routine salting is restricted to the ‘Precautionary Salting Network’ which covers approximately 45% of the County’s roads and includes all main link roads between Broughton Astley, Lutterworth and Whetstone.
A map showing the Precautionary Salting Network is available to view on the County Council’s website at https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/road-maintenance/road-gritting-routes
2) Why are Beaver buses not able to provide an earlier warning to the school allowing in turn the school to text parents immediately - putting a notice on their website about 15 minutes before the bus is due is simply not good enough.
The council cannot answer questions about commercially provided services and any considerations around decisions not to operate in inclement weather.
3) Has a contingency option been discussed/considered. For instance if some roads are not passable safely (eg Dog & Gun lane in Whetstone) can a contingency route be advised, with the school bus pick up times being amended by +10 minutes allowing the children to be picked up on Cambridge road. This road appears to be much safer and the main bus (84) takes this route. Similarly the bus does not have to get right into the school grounds if they are not gritted, it can just stop close to the school
A contingency option has not been discussed or considered by the council to date. The council provides advice on roads which are gritted on its website.
4) Please clarify what are the financial implications to Beaver buses of not providing the service. Do they lose out financially in any way or are they paid regardless. Does the council receive some form of claw back should buses not run. As per my email above, I would be interested to see the actual contract with regards this point. If Beaver buses do not lose out financially, then surely they must gain financially given that drivers aren't driving, fuel isn't being consumed and buses aren't being subject to routine wear and tear. If this is the case there seems little incentive for Beaver busses to keep the busses running.
For instances where services are not operated the council does not make any deductions on season ticket agreements for short suspensions in service.
5) What meetings, phone calls or discussions have taken place with so far between the council, Beaver buses and Thomas Estley/Lutterworth College to consider what to do next time to minimise disruption and ensure children can get to school.
None have taken place to date.
6) In making the decision not to run the service on safety grounds, has any thought been given to the added safety risk of all the extra car journeys that are being made, there-in increasing the number of journeys being made plus the extra traffic on the road.
The council cannot answer questions about commercially provided services and any considerations around decisions not to operate in inclement weather.
7) If the buses can't do the early morning trip when roads are perhaps worse, why are they automatically unable to do the afternoon trip when school finishes. The roads were all undoubtedly safe this afternoon and yet many parents had to make arrangements for their children to be collected. There is no logic to this from the school, children, parents or the councils perspective.
The Council will be discussing this with the bus operator.
8) Purely for reference, I note that the 84 bus service which covers much of the same routes as the Beaver buses to Thomas Estley/Lutterworth College all ran without any noted incidents today (as other days), save for the fact that they all ran somewhat late, but they did manage to get their passengers safely from A to B.
Unless otherwise stated, the information provided in response to this request is made available under the Open Government Licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/