Anger as council’s new bus service doubles journey time for Welsh medium pupils

Stephen Price

A Welsh council is under fire after it was revealed that children attending their nearest Welsh medium primary school will have their journey times doubled to over an hour following a successful tender bid from a new bus company – while rules state that English medium pupils benefit from a 45 minute maximum journey.

Parents from Llanelly Hill, a small village on the edge of Monmouthshire, who send their children to a nearby Welsh medium primary school discovered only this week that Monmouthshire County Council’s new bus service provider is set to double the travel times each school day, having not analysed the route before winning the tender, just days before the new term begins.

Until July 2026, Rees’ Coaches, based on Llanelly Hill, had successfully operated the service – providing a trustworthy and local face who many of the young children enjoyed seeing each morning. Families also reported feeling safe in their care.

The contract has now been awarded to Murray’s Mini Bus Hire, based in Torfaen and, controversially for some family members, not Monmouthshire as they feel the council should have been supporting local businesses. Murray’s bid was made with a large bus in mind – one they say is unsuitable for the narrow road from Llanelly Hill to Clydach which families, delivery drivers and the previous bus company have no issue with.

Families are enraged after it appears that Murray’s “tendered for a route they hadn’t even looked at”, according to one parent, and the council’s excuse of pupils attending Welsh medium and faith schools being able to travel for further than English medium school children is “absurd and offensive” when the previous provider had no issue following the shorter, more convenient route that was sufficient until this term.

With a journey time of one hour and 15 minutes returning home each day, one parent told the council: “I would find this commute to work lengthy even as an adult, I can’t imagine how long it would feel as a 5 year old and a 7 year, every day, 5 days a week.

“I know that the other parents in Llanelly hill feel that this is not a suitable travel time, it would really have a negative impact on the children in our village, who already travel further distances for the chance to have a welsh-medium education.

“When the new contract with Murray’s was accepted, were these travel times discussed with yourselves? Or did Murray’s just assume that they could match the route without assessing it first?”

In nearby Clydach, children now also face a longer journey time and pickup change – with families now having to drive children as young as four to a bus stop near the busy Heads of the Valleys Road with no allocated parking.

Much of the journey is without pavements, with parents sharing their fears of collisions on dark mornings, and having to alter their working patterns to wait at the bus stop which they say is out of sight and too near dangerous traffic.

Incredulous, the same parent above wrote: “This is no longer the same route that was tendered for – and in phone conversations I was told as much, despite the council now backtracking , so Murray’s bus company have not tendered for the bid correctly, I feel that they didn’t know if they were able to provide the service (the same route) until after they won the bid. This means that the children of Llanelly hill are now expected to absorb their error by spending an extra 50 minutes a day on the bus, does Monmouthshire council really think that this is reasonable for primary school aged children?

“The new bus will be driving to Llanelly Hill and then going all the way to Brynmawr and then to Clydach along the heads of the valley road rather than using the main road into the village – this adds on the extra time. Our previous service provider had an appropriately sized bus that was tailored for use in this area.”

One parent who lives in Clydach and works as a school teacher, told Nation Cymru: “I am furious. The council closed our primary, and then we discovered that we can’t send our child to nearby Gilwern as it was oversubscribed, and took comfort in the bus journey being on our doorstep with a bus driver we trusted.

“To be told this late in the day just beggars belief. I am potentially looking at needing wraparound care, or a taxi which I will have to pay for myself. I phoned multiple times over the past weeks and was told very different information from the bus company who told me they hadn’t yet looked at the route, despite the council’s backtracking in new correspondence.

“His place in the school very much hinged on this, and I am beginning to wonder if we and other families made the right choice.”

“Alarming”

In a letter to Monmouthshire County Council, one parent wrote: “As a very concerned parent of 2 of the children that are due to start the new school term at Ysgol Gymraeg y Fenni in just over 1 week (one of whom is only 4 and for him will be for the first time) I wanted to firstly express how disappointed I am at the clear lack of compassion and consideration for the wellbeing of children that has been demonstrated by the council within these responses so far. There has been no acknowledgment of my partner’s concerns from the council that this bus service is indeed for some very young children (as young as 4 years old!) , that the start / end times and bus journeys are unreasonable (and could be reviewed ahead of start of term) or even that the time that the children will be on the bus may be too long.

“In addition, we as parents of the children who are due to use this service have been made aware that the new bus operating company contacted one of the parents only a few weeks ago on the phone to obtain basic information about the previous bus route and the size of the previous bus that was used. Was the bus operating company not aware of exactly what they were tendering for and what service they were to provide (and therefore did not provide a fair, honest and accurate tender)? That the council appear to have not undertaken due diligence in their tender reviewing process and that the bus operating service are displaying such unprofessionalism and disorganisation is extremely alarming.

“I won’t repeat the arguments against going ahead with the proposed bus times and journey periods and there is no point in going over the same points with regards to the guidelines that have informed these, but I will state the obvious facts that proposing to put young primary school age children on a bus for these significant durations of time for every school day is unacceptable. Would you as individuals be happy to put a young child on a bus for that long, from 7:35am and returning at 4:35 pm in deepest darkest winter?
Note there are children in the village who already find getting the bus to school as emotionally difficult (as expected for young children) so to expect them to be on the bus for longer is bound to prove even more difficult.

“With regards to the queries that my partner raised in terms of there being a toilet, as the council is in charge of procuring the bus service on behalf of the school and parents, the council is able to find this out and therefore should be acting to do this instead of asking a parent to do it on their behalf? Further to this, I’d like to ask whether it’s intended for the bus to have air conditioning for the summer. Please provide a response accordingly.

“I will definitely not be putting my children on this bus service proposed and want to let you know that based on conversations held with the other parents of other children who are due to use it, I expect they will not either therefore it is highly likely there will be no children getting on the bus at Llanelly Hill. As a result, this will lead to an inaccurate trial of the bus journey times, a fair review will not be possible but most worryingly, the council will not be providing the service they are obliged to for children living in a rural village within Wales who want to attend a Welsh language medium school. For this reason, there must be a review of the times and durations of this journey as soon as possible before school term starts, or else an alternative arrangement must be put in place until the bus times and journeys are optimised.

“Several of the parents are keen to hold a discussion in person on this with the council (and the bus operating service if necessary), either on Teams or at a suitable venue (e.g. Llanelly Hill Village Hall) so that our concerns can be received openly. Can this be arranged?

“We are not actively looking to argue with the council but feel the need to impress our feelings on this urgent matter and want to get a resolution on this that works. I also want to point out that this issue would not have arisen if the standard and quality of service that the council has been providing for many years now, would be changing as is proposed.

“I await your response eagerly.”

In a response to one of the parents via email, Monmouthshire Council’s Transport Officer wrote to a parent, explaining: “As you may or may not be aware of, this year all mainstream home to school contracts were retendered in line with procurement policy as they expire every 3 years, so with that the majority to all contracts across all schools changed operators. The new running schedule is how the operator will be running the route, due to logistics such as where their depot is based, or where their driver is based.

“You are correct, our policy does state 45 minutes per primary passengers it does also state for those learners attending Welsh medium, faith or special education settings, journey times may be more than an hour dependent on the location of the education setting.

“From discussing this directly with the operator the running schedule has been created to allow for delays such as road works, congestion/traffic etc, as their main priority is ensuring all passengers arrive to school on time. They have advised that the running schedule does take the previous into account and that the first week will be a trial to gauge timings as when configuring the route, as at the time of creating the schedule they cannot take into consideration the time passenger’s embark transport at each pick up.”

Another email shared: “The current/new operator has attempted to run the route in the vehicle as the previous operator had and he has deemed that route unsafe; they drive as a profession and we are to ensure that we transport children to school safely – this is not to do with the size of the vehicle.

“As we have previously said these timings will be adjusted and are within the journey times specified. I would not know if the vehicle has a toilet, again you would need to clarify this with the operator directly.

“I would not look at any alternatives until the contract has settled down, the driver and pupils are used to the stops, and the times have been looked at with regards adjustments. If the times still remain over the hour then we would look at alternatives.”

Despite the bus company telling one parent they hadn’t analysed the route only a fortnight prior, in a follow-up email, the member of Monmouthshire County Council wrote: “I would like to clarify that vehicle being used by the previous operator was 28 years old so would not have had air conditioning and I would also assume not a toilet. The vehicle that is being used now is 6 years old and has air conditioning – it does not have a toilet, however, this is certainly not a requirement for contract award and procurement processes.

“We are providing transport in line with our legal duties and in accordance with the Learner Travel Measure Wales and our Home to School Transport Policy, if parents chose not to utilise the transport that they have been provided then that is completely their own choice.

“I have already provided you with a resolution, I have confirmed that we will look at the timings once the transport has been running for a period of time, if it is still over an hour then we will look at alternatives. Until this has happened, we would not look at any alternative provision as we are already providing you suitable transport.

“Regretfully the previous operator was not awarded the contract as per the procurement procedures and policies, he would also not have been able to use the existing vehicle he has been as it does not comply with our minimum euro emission standard requirements. Our minimum requirement is that the vehicles used are at least a Euro 3, his is a Euro 2 and the new one is a Euro 6 therefore emanating far less emissions.”

Nation Cymru has contacted Monmouthshire County Council for a response.

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