Driver has to “retrain” children after incident on the way to secondary school

A bus driver was sent for retraining after a student complained about the quality of his driving style.

Newport Bus's decision caused a stir when a city councillor raised concerns about alleged “overcrowding” of the vehicles currently used by school children.

Monmouthshire County Council has been providing eligible pupils with free bus passes to use public buses since the start of the new school year in September, rather than using dedicated school buses on some routes.

But Conservative councillor Tony Kear claimed the No. 60 bus from Newport, which takes pupils from Usk to Monmouth Comprehensive, was “overcrowded”.

The Usk member expressed concern about students being forced to stand on the bus, saying: “Following complaints from a student, Newport Bus has sent a driver for further training.”

He asked at the September meeting of the full council what steps the council was taking to ensure safe driving standards.

He said parents had asked him about the “double standard” of requiring special school buses to be equipped with seat belts while students are allowed to stand on public buses, which he said are “legally overcrowded.”

Labour cabinet minister Martyn Groucutt said the council's passenger transport unit regularly makes unannounced visits to buses used for school transport.

He said: “I was aware of the incident you mentioned. It was addressed and the driver was sent for retraining. I hope this never happens again. I share your concern, we had children on the bus at the time.”

A Newport Bus spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Newport Transport cannot comment on individual staff.”

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In response to Councillor Kear's complaint that the bus was “overcrowded”, Councillor Groucutt said he was “not aware of any complaints about overcrowding”.

He said that bus route 60 to Monmouth has a capacity of 61 to 70 passengers with a seating capacity of 29 to 33 and that the municipality has issued bus tickets to 29 students.

Cllr Groucutt said the average number of paying passengers was 20, meaning there were normally around 49 passengers on the bus.