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Parents in Papamoa are voicing anger at the Ministry of Education after it cut funding to a daily school bus service.
The service involved using three buses to transport students from the suburb to Tauranga Intermediate, Tauranga Boys’ College and Tauranga Girls’ College.
Some school students in Papamoa are being left behind because there is not enough room on the bus.
These schools formed the Tauranga Transport Network – the operator of the bus service.
Ministry of Education group resourcing manager John Clark says this operator lost its government funding because the service did not comply with regulations.
“Directly resourced schools must operate within their transport entitlement zone,” says John.
“Investigation into the previous operation of those services identified they were not operating according to their funding agreement, and the routes were amended.”
Bay of Plenty Regional Council transport policy manager Garry Maloney says the removal of the school bus service has put pressure on other buses.
“We are aware our weekday 7.45am route 36 Bayhopper from Bayfair to Tauranga CBD is now under some pressure to accommodate the number of students travelling to Tauranga Intermediate and the colleges.”
One parent, who has asked not to be named, is angry at how she has to pay for her son to get to school.
She says it is expensive enough when she has to pay school fees and for uniforms and stationary.
Garry says the number of children needing to use the Bayhopper service means the buses are often too full to accommodate other users.
Complaints have been received from these users.
He says regional council staff are monitoring the situation and working on a solution.
Posted on 16-02-2012 13:52 | By Capt_Kaveman
i believe the 7.20am papamoa route 33 carries on after the city down cameron rd to the girls college and return from the girls college about 3.30pm