David Ottewell reports here and here about a misunderstanding in Stockport concerning the number of yellow school buses that might be available under the TIF proposals. Personally I’m surprised that AGMA have put the figure of 120 new yellow buses up in bright lights – because whilst they would be extremely welcome they are barely scratching the surface of school transport issues.
Those 120 buses have to split between all 10 local authorities, so that’s 12 buses for Salford if divided equally. Given that population-wise Salford is not as big as the Manchesters and the Wigans of this world (probability of Manchester City Council getting less than a fair share from TIF = 0) we’re probably looking at around 10 yellow buses to cover the whole of Salford.
How far will ten buses go? If you wander up to Birch Road in Walkden at the end of the school day, you’ll spot at least three and possibly four school buses taking pupils home – and of course Walkden High School is due to expand by another 300 places after the rebuild.
So those ten buses will be suitable for two large schools, or three smaller schools at a push. Given the Council is determined to close good schools like St George’s and make Salford children travel even further to school, those ten buses are only going to become even more inadequate in the future.
I suppose the introduction of yellow school buses, but they shouldn’t be any more expensive to buy or run than an ordinary bus and they shouldn’t be used as a carrot to persuade parents and prospective parents to support the TIF package – particularly as even if the TIF bid is successful the chances of your child ending up on a shiny new yellow bus are fairly slim.
Recent Comments