School transpor sutiability / appeal

tinkerbell84

pinkemsy wrote: »

The poster has a list of threads they have started asking for advice, often referring to 'a friend' etc. Always asking for advice and not happy when people give it and it's not what they expected to hear.

Yep. And another thread clearly shows they have issues with the council concerned already.

Over protective parent with a vendetta to be as awkward as possible where the council is involved.

shazrobo

why cant the original poster just take their child to school if they are not happy with the transport?
i drove one of my sons and back to junior school that was a fair distance from home, i never considered asking the authorities for help, when i saw it as my responsibility to my son
now my children are at special seconday schools i applied for transport, because it was impossible to get them both there on time, as they are so fa away. luckily twin one school is really reliable taxi service, good job really, as it over ten miles away
twin two school is only five mile away, and when there is no escort available due to illness or whatever, i still drive my son, yes i claim petrol allowance, but that is all, no way would i expect eimbursing for my time.

Reggie_Rebel

If they expect us to take them then we should be paid petrol allowance as well as compensated for our time as escorts despite being parents as well.

Where does it say you can go part-time as a parent when your children start school?

Will you claim petrol money when you take your child to a party, to ballett, to football?

Time to join the real world

silvercar

kissmeimposh wrote:

It's not only a question merely of getting the child to school. It needs to do so in a suitable, fair and reasonable way. It is not just a question of the vehicle itself but a question of other issues related to vulnerability, whether the school is equipped to acommodate this, whether any other children at the school or in the neighbourhood are similary using this type of service, whether the Council made it clear to the parents that this extreme measure would be forced upon their child when the Council allocated that particular school, etc..

suitable, fair and reasonable way

Wrong, it has to be suitable, it doesn't have to be fair or reasonable to you. In order to make the best use of resources, the council could order the taxi to take a longer route to pick up others for example or to delay departure from school to wait for another child finishing later.

whether the school is equipped to acommodate this,

You said in another post that there was a place for the taxi to safely go into school.

whether any other children at the school or in the neighbourhood are similary using this type of service

Wrong again, the council can decide how to provide the transport. There is no obligation to provide the same transport that is provided to others.

whether the Council made it clear to the parents that this extreme measure would be forced upon their child when the Council allocated that particular school

Again this is incorrect. The school place allocation is not connected to how transport will be provided. You may have accepted the place in the knowledge that the council will have an obligation to provide transport. You would not know at the time of accepting the place what the transport provision would be. Nor would the council, as it would need to know exact numbers from different areas before transport allocations are made.

You have to decide what you want. Is it an escort (though in my experience these are usually friends or relatives of the drivers)? Is it petrol money (you will get little else in the way of direct payment)?

You have said you are happy with the school place, what do you expect the council to do?

frugallass

kissmeimposh is lost for words - now there's a first !

ekkygirl

kissmeimposh wrote: »

Just seemed that maybe it's a a teenage mother with little experience or sense of responsibility, to send such a little girl alone in a cab unless the driver was a relative or similar. If I worked for social services and heard about such an occurance I'd want to check it out for the girl's sake.

Originally Posted by kissmeimposh
I genuinely do not give a hoot about how much it costs or how annoyed you seem to feel by this statement. I care about two factors: a) the Council fulfilling their legal duty to provide suitable transport (regardless of cost); and b) that all small children, whether mine, yours, Baby Leo Blair, or those of immigrants down at the council flats, have transport as safe as possible without havign to endure risks because the Council was unable to accurately forecast a transport requirement when making an allocation of a school.

I owe no transport duty to the Council. The Counil 100% owes eligible children the transport service. Neither you nor I have a role in the budgeting or cost-effectiveness. The children's interests are paramount and if your Council tax goes up as a result, vote differently next time.


ekkygirl response

You really did not have to say that you only care about yourself, Everyone can see that. I note you did not respond to the positive points in my post and chose instead to be disrespectful. You and and your "me me me" attitude everything that is wrong with this country. For your information the immigrants you speak of do not all live in council flats, Those that do probably have a better attitude than you.
Despite being asked several times by other posters you have not said how old the very very very young child is, which suggests they are not very very young.
The council ARE paying for your child if thats not good enough take them yourself.

kissmeimposh ? dont think so luv ignoremeimrude more like

She doesn't confine her opinions only to teen parents see above from another thread. TROLL!!!!!!

silvercar

kissmeimposh wrote:

Council was unable to accurately forecast a transport requirement when making an allocation of a school.

with a crystal ball? its almost a chicken and egg situation, until places are allocated the council can't know transport requirements. I say almost because obviously the school allocation has to come first.

The Counil 100% owes eligible children the transport service.

And they have a service, you don't like it but that is your choice. It is not compulsary. The 2004 government review of school transport actually said that councils should move resources towards sustainable methods of transport and away from services that clog up our roads. They said councils should promote bus transport and transport that uses existing public transport and away from car and taxi services.

I've googled around and school transport is varied around the country. Many, councils provide taxis with no escorts except for special needs children. Some provide escorts for younger children only. Some expect parents to take their children to pick up points along the route to school, this is allowable provided your journey to the pick up point is less than 2 miles. Some councils give petrol money only and don't provide taxis except for disabled/ special need parents.

I think kissmeimposh is genuine but has an unrealistic expectation of the councils obligations.

Strapped

Shall we start a book on how old the OP's child is?

ekkygirl

I'm guessing 14

silvercar

The age doesn't matter. The council have provided transport that they consider suitable, plenty of councils nationwide would provide the same transport and so this has been judged as 'reasonable' by many councils. kissmeimposh doesn't think the transport is suitable, so they can either make their own arrangements or get into further discussion with the council. The only further discussion that I think would have a chance of success is getting an escort to be provided or for the council to pay petrol money to the parent. Kissmeimposh hasn't said whether either of those options would be acceptable.

Just another thought, if there is a school bus within 2 miles of your home, the council could allow you to use that.