Petition launched after school buses axed

A BUS firm has apologised to families over plans to remove a service which was introduced after school pupils were left stranded.

McCalls Coaches introduced the extra 246 services between Dumfries and Thornhill last August in order to transport non catchment pupils to and from Wallace Hall Academy (WHA) after new bus contracts began.

But the firm has now announced the additional buses will be cut from July 1 after the council withdrew funding.

A spokesperson said: “This is outwith our control and we understand this is going to cause a lot of frustration and stress to many families all over again.

“We will still be operating our local service bus leaving from Dumfries at 8.05 am, travelling to Thornhill, and same for the 4.07 pm bus leaving from Thornhill travelling to Dumfries, but the duplicate school bus will not run.

“We will run our bus to capacity but as soon as we are full unfortunately we will have to deny travel as it would be unsafe and illegal to be overloaded. We are really limited as to what we can do here or how to help. It wasn’t our decision to make.

“We are truly sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Currently, the number of non-catchment pupils attending WHA is 226 out of a total roll of 572, with 33 pupils attending from the Sanquhar area and 178 from Dumfries. In a letter to parents, Dumfries and Galloway Council described the annual £44,000 cost of providing the service as ‘unsustainable’ and said it had no legal requirement to provide free transport for non-catchment pupils.

It went on: “We appreciate the significance of the withdrawal of this additional bus and recognise that this may have implications for your children’s education.”

A petition to save the service has been set up and already has 500 signatures; and a public meeting will take place at Holywood Village Hall on March 6.