Education authorities have a lot to learn
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School transport in many areas is in a mess, largely of local education authorities' own making. The results of exploiting the tendering system and failing to co-ordinate local transport requirements are coming home to roost. The situation has been aggravated by authorities underestimating the transport effects of concentrating pupils in larger schools.
Zeal in saving ratepayers' money is to be applauded but, as the hard-hitting report by the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association makes clear, the vanity of local education officials in hanging on to control of school buses at any price has not only been costly and damaging to school transport, it has also prevented savings being made through coordination of services.
Driving out the established operator by low rates has had a serious effect on safety, too. The instances quoted in the PVOA report may or may not be isolated ones, but to read of children being driven by inexperienced drivers in buses bought as scrap from a local operator, or in overloaded cars and vans, is enough to make any parent's blood run cold. There are loopholes in the law which make this difficult to correct by legal means; but it is up to local authorities to set and maintain standards.
To some extent local councils are victims of the system. This can be changed by acceptance of the five-point plan which the PVOA has put forward. The Association has worked hard in the past to encourage constructive solutions to the school bus problem and its suggestions merit respect. In particular, the replacement of tendering by negotiated contracts, and the appointment of transport co-ordinating officers, are essential items of reform. As a county coordinating officer makes plain in this issue of CM, such a man can save thousands of pounds by commonsense dovetailing of services, while improving the service to the public. If local authorities fail to accept their full responsibilities over the crucial next two years, the new councils in the 1974 reorganization will inherit a transport wilderness. Operators, schoolchildren and the public deserve better than that.