Guernsey school bus services oversubscribed

Some secondary school children have been told to take a public bus instead of a school bus

Parents of some Guernsey schoolchildren will have to make alternative arrangements for their children to get to or from school, after the States announced school buses are oversubscribed.

The States told some parents there was no space for their children on school buses, while others have been advised to use a public bus instead of a school bus.

It said 24 secondary school children had been told to catch a public bus as no place on a school bus was available, while a further 25 had been unable to get a space on their preferred school bus service in the afternoon.

The States said children using public buses can do so "free of charge and those scheduled buses pass near the relevant stops" and, in some cases, "offer significantly shorter journey times".

The States said a small number of pupils at one primary school had also been unable to get a place on the school bus, with four children affected in the morning and six in the evening.

A statement from the States said when "a route is oversubscribed" it used factors such as the child's age, home address and whether a child was outside their catchment area to allocate places.

It said "in some instances the views of the head teacher" were also taken into account.

The statement said: "The Education Office finds that children who have been allocated a place on the school bus use other transport to get to and from school, so it might well be the case that unused places are reallocated when usage is reviewed after the term starts."

The States said it had received "1,919 requests for access to mainstream school bus services this year: 852 for morning services and 1,067 for afternoon services".