UUP urges review offree bus pass policy

UUP MLA Ross Hussey was speaking in support of a motion calling on the Education Minister John O’Dowd to review the current policy which disqualifies families living within two or three miles of schools from access to free home to school transport.

Under the current policy children living less than two miles from their local primary school cannot avail of free transport; for secondary schools the limit is raised to three miles.

Mr Hussey also raised the issue of school children in Londonderry who - since the opening of the Peace Bridge - have been told they now must walk from the Waterside to Foyle and Londonderry College because they are no longer eligible for free bus passes.

The Omagh based MLA said budget constraints were not an excuse for failing to provide safe transport to school and asked “what value could be placed on a child’s life.”

“Now I ask you to picture the scene between Magheramason and Bready, between Donemanna and Strabane, between Artigarvan and Strabane and between Ballymagorry and Strabane.

“These names probably mean very little to the members of this house. But to the parents of the children who have suddenly found bus services removed they mean an awful lot,” said Mr Hussey.

“In the case of Magheramson to Bready or from Ballymagorry we are talking just short of two miles for primary school children and just short of three miles for secondary school children.

“You leave Magheramson and in a very short time the footpath disappears and you are left with a grassy area. The grassed area runs along side the main A5, to comply with pedestrian safety guidelines you walk towards oncoming traffic which can legitimately travel at up to 60 mph, and if it is raining you are walking on slippy grass, you are keeping your head down to try and avoid the rain and you are being buffeted by the pressure created by an articulated lorry thundering past you,” said the West Tyrone MLA.

Mr Hussey said the same applied to parents and schoolchildren forced to walk from Ballymagorry towards Strabane.

He also addressed the impact of the policy in the urban setting of Londonderry where many Foyle College pupils - since the opening of the Peace Bridge this summer - faced with the prospect of walking the ostensibly shorter distance from the Waterside to the Northland Road school.

Mr Hussey questioned the wisdom of asking pupils to cross the bridge during extreme weather conditions.

“In Londonderry it has been decided that because the Peace Bridge is now open the bus service can be withdrawn and children can walk to Foyle and Londonderry College - despite the fact that in inclement weather this bridge may become a nightmare for pedestrians to cross,” he warned.

Mr Hussey claimed the withdrawal of certain services to the newly amalgamated Strabane Academy had left parents with the difficult choice of either paying approximately £8 per child in bus fares or sending them to school on foot.

Mr Hussey even claimed: “The Police at one stage suggested that they were going to be prosecuted as they were taking part in an illegal parade.”