October 11, 2021 2.11 pm This story is over 29 months old

Over 200 pupils still don’t have school bus pass amid Lincolnshire driver shortage

A month on from the start of term
| Photo: Adobe stock image

There are still 218 pupils in Lincolnshire who don’t have a place on a school bus after driver shortages at the start of term caused chaos.

Back in September Lincolnshire County Council said it couldn’t offer offer concessionary, paid-for school bus places to pupils until all children entitled to free transport had a pass.

The council said this would take ‘some weeks’ to resolve, blaming the problem on transport providers having difficulties retaining and recruiting drivers. And LCC urged parents to avoid booking school transport unless they did not have any alternatives.

Five weeks on from the start of term, there are still 124 applications for free transport that need to be processed, as well as 94 applications for concessionary tickets.

Councillor Patricia Bradwell, executive member for children’s services, said: “All applications received before the start of term have now been processed and appropriate transport arranged.

“However, we have received a number of applications after the start of term, which are currently being dealt with and we will then be in a position to look at requests for concessionary tickets, which we are aiming to have processed by the upcoming half-term break, in line with our usual timescales.”