Complaint about bus loading for pupils

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 18

Complaint about bus loading for pupils

The Minister of Education (Mr Pickering) has asked the Department of Education to report on a complaint that there is overcrowding on a bus which takes pupils from the Hornby-Sockburn area to Lincoln High School.

A petition signed by 41 parents was forwarded to Mr Pickering by the member of Parliament for Wigram (Mr M. A. Connelly). One of the organisers of the petition, Mr L. A. Williams. said last evening that were “jammed into the bus like sardines.” "This bus has up to 80 pupils. There are a good many standing, and we re-! gard this as highly dangerous; in the event of an accident.”: Most of the pupils pay for: this transport at the rate of: $1.55 a week. "This service operates: independently of other | official school transport ser-| vices which run to Lincoln | High School, and the cost of|

fares is a matter between ■ the parents and the bus com- ' pany concerned,” wrote Mr Pickering. He said that a survey ■■ would be carried out by the Canterbury Education Board before schools resumed next year, and any necessary adjustments of school trani sport policy would be made. Mr R. C. Wasley, the ' operations manager for Midland Coachlines, Ltd, which ! runs the service to Lincoln . High School, said last even- ,: ing that the bus carried children “within the certificate of loading regulations.” 1 I “The majority of the pupils would be those that ■i boarded the bus last, and 11 they would not be standing ’I for long,” he said.