*Photograph: Joe Buckley
SIXMILEBRIDGE parents have said they will do “whatever it takes” to force Bus Éireann and the Department of Education to reinstate dedicate school bus services for students travelling to Shannon.
A new chapter in the lives of hundreds of Clare teenagers commenced this week with many young teenagers beginning their second level education at secondary schools across the county.
For those from Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus travelling via bus to Shannon’s two secondary schools, St Caimin’s Community School and St Patrick’s Comprehensive School, the creation of a new pilot bus scheme on the 343 and the removal of dedicated school buses continues to cause angst.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Aoife Keogh a Sixmilebridge mother of two students in Shannon slammed Bus Éireann for failing to conduct a health and safety audit. “A health and safety risk assessment hasn’t been done and this is the 316 route as part of the 343 so a risk assessment should have been done and a road safety audit should have been done especially in view of the fact that the plan is at the moment to pull in here in front of Crowe’s Shop and drive up as far as The Grotto across from the church, pick up the kids there and drive up a narrow little passage beside the courthouse turning left to go up to the GAA pitch, a bus is going to come up and down there sixteen times a day from Monday to Friday and no risk assessment has been done, that is an absolute disgrace and it is endangering our children’s lives. They know about this since May, why has it not been done”.
Last Wednesday, the Cratloe designated school bus was reinstated, a move which has strengthened the belief of parents in Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus that similar results can occur in their locality. “We’ve one out of three areas reinstated and we want all three reinstated now and not in two weeks time, four weeks time or six weeks time, we want it back now,” Aoife said.
She continued, “We want this scheme to be scrapped, we want our buses back the way we had them in the traditional way. If Bus Éireann want to engage with the community about creating this sort of scheme then they need to reopen the public consultation for the route 343 amendment which was not transparent about what they were intending to use this route amendment for which was to scrap the school bus system and integrate students onto the public bus system, they never told us that so we were never invited to make submissions and objections and help with planning or organising, we were completely left out, the schools, the families and the communities and it is not on”.
On the potential of more protests, Aoife outlined, “We’ll do whatever is required, we will do whatever it takes, we are not letting this go, these are our children, they are our priority”.
Mother of three secondary school students, Edel Rafferty said, “we’re all in this together, we’re a great community and the people are really getting behind us”. She continued, “We don’t know what more we can do, hopefully someone will take notice of this and do something to help us because as it is the safety of our children is the biggest concern, that has not been looked after, they won’t get to school on time, there is one bus which goes to Shannon in the morning at 07:50 and that is meant to be back here for 08:25 for 70 odd children and get them over the school, it is not going to work whatever way you look at it”.
Introduction of a new scheme has caught parents “completely by surprise,” Edel admitted. “We got an email on August 6th which was vague enough and just to say we’d be having a different collection point from where we were getting on previously and be getting issued a leap card, at no stage at all in the email did it say anything about moving to the public service, then we looked into it because everyone seemed to have the same collection point and then the penny started to drop that something was going on and we made further enquiries we found out all of this. We got an email two weeks ago to explain it more, we should have that email months ago”.
Having studied the route on Tuesday morning, Aoife maintained that the 08:25 service will not get Sixmilebridge students to school in Shannon on time for a 09:00 start. On Tuesday, the 07:50 bus left Sixmilebridge with 28 students and returned to The Bridge at 08:20 while in Newmarket-on-Fergus the 07:45 bus didn’t arrive until 08:10.
Safety concerns were evident at collection time in Shannon on Tuesday evening, Aoife flagged. The double decker due to go to Sixmilebridge had difficulty pulling in at John and Paul Church in Shannon, she noted. She urged parents to speak with their children about staying on the path and not running towards the bus when it arrives.
The Clare Echo has contacted Bus Éireann for comment.
