IN JANUARY 2007 parents in Acton Turville and Badminton claimed daylight robbery thanks to a hike in school bus fares.

Thirty families in South Gloucestershire were hit by a near-100 per cent increase in bus service fares to Sheldon Secondary School and Hardenhuish Secondary School – both of which are located in Chippenham, North Wiltshire.

Wiltshire County Council raised the return fares from £1.55 to £3 because, a spokesman said, the users are not in the Chippenham schools catchment area.

But parents said they felt victimised by the council’s decision.

Wayne Rees, of Badminton, predicted the rise in fares would cost him £2,000 a year.

He said: “The prices have now almost doubled and this has shocked all of us here.”

He believed this would lead to a surge in school run parents clogging the roads.

“I don’t know what the council are playing at. On one hand they want us to use the public transport and then they price us out of it. This is simply not good enough.”

Sarah Smith, of Tormarton, decided to start a car-share scheme with another parent to replace the bus service that she felt had become too expensive.

She said: “One week the service was costing me £15 a week, then the following week it costs £30.

“I was left with no other option but to start driving my child into school with another family – even though I am aware that it is adding more traffic on to an already very busy road.”

Mrs Smith decided to send her children to the school in Chippenham rather than the one in Chipping Sodbury, because she did not want to split her child from his friends he had made at Trinity Primary School in Acton Turville.

Ian White, passenger transport co-ordinator for Wiltshire County Council, said: “This particular route is used by both pupils who are going to their designated school and pupils who have chosen to go to a school which is not their designated school.

“It is unfortunate that more pupils want to use this service than there are places on the bus and it is not possible to use a larger bus.”