Transport

A guiding principle of the council proposal is:
 ‘The pattern of schools should ensure that there is a primary school within reasonable travelling distance of the home of each child living in the Rother Valley’
Our understanding is that:

• the direct distance between Northchapel School and Petworth Primary for a bus is 5.3 miles
• any distance of buses deviating from this route needs to be added
• consideration needs to be given to children who currently travel from outlying areas to Northchapel
• the school has the largest catchment in the Rother Valley and a journey from home to Northchapel school can be significant (over 30 minutes for the furthest), possibly resulting in a journey of up to an hour each way for some pupils aged 7 plus.

West Sussex County Council states that:

1. there is no statutory rule as to the ages and numbers of children who can travel on a bus together

2. one bus driver is in charge of everyone on the bus

3. although parents and pupils are asked to sign an agreement for behaviour there is no real control mechanism

4. there is no rule for how long it is appropriate for a child to be on a bus, although the recommended maximum for primary school age children is one hour each way!

We believe that:

• recorded issues with children travelling on buses to Herbert Shiner are well known - concerned members of the public (not affiliated with Northchapel) raised such issues at the recent Petworth School consultation meeting on the 3rd of March
• also raised was the need for children of 7 years old to be escorted, a cost which it appears the County Council may not have considered
• Further to the information supplied to us above, we understand that an escort on the bus to Herbert Shiner (Petworth middle school) has been in operation since September 2007
• a number of cases locally and nationally have highlighted issues with children being unattended on buses.  The latest being:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=528465&in_page_id=1770

A survey undertaken within Northchapel for parents of 30 pre-school children suggests that 94% of children aged 7 and at the school will not be allowed to travel on the bus. 

This would result in:

• an average of over 9 cars, each making 4 trips per day to Petworth
• a cost to each car of £9.54 per day (over £91 for the group of cars driving to Petworth School per day)
• a yearly combined cost to the parents driving of nearly £18,000
• an extra 27 tonnes of carbon emitted per year

(information sources, AA, www.carbonify.com )
 As has been illustrated above, the costs of busing children, escorting and parents driving will come at a significant cost to the schools and parents.