THE head of a Stanford-le-Hope school which faces the threat of seeing many of its pupils left without a bus service to get them from rural areas has spoken of its opposition to Thurrock Council cash-saving plans.

Despite widespread opposition from residents to the proposal to axe free bus transport for children in East Tilbury, Linford and West Tilbury, Thurrock Council's strategic lead for the council's education support service wants councillors to support removing the service that gets them safely to St Clere's School.

As reported on Nub News yesterday (Tuesday, 1 February), in a report to the council's children's services overview and scrutiny committee next week, Sarah Williams continues to suggest the scheme to find alternatives to free school buses is a safe way to cut costs.

And she goers so far as to suggest the scheme is supported by the school and ward councillors – which appears to be disingenuous at best and is certainly a contradiction to what is being said publicly by the school and councillors.

St Clere's head Ashlie Hughes has spoke to Nub News about the issue and is quite clear that the plan is not something the school thinks can be implemented without putting children at risk. She does not believe the alternatives put forward by the council, for children to take the train, cycle or walk are either practical or safe.

And she adds the proposal breaches a pledge made to residents of East Tilbury and surrounding villages when the decision was made in the seventies to build the school in Stanford, rather than East Tilbury.

She says: "The local authority have approached us about its plans to stop the free bus service for children from East Tilbury, Linford and East Tilbury Village. We are aware of the historical agreement for a free bus service from when the school was built so we have, in turn, informed our Local Governing Body and made them aware of this important issue.

"Our priority, as a school, will always be children's safety and well-being so we have concerns regarding this decision as we cannot see how the country lane between the school and East Tilbury can be considered a safe travel route for our children.

"We have further concerns about possible further congestion of cars posing a health and safety risk for our children as well as possible large numbers of children accessing a train platform at the same time, if this becomes a preferred method of transport."

Ward councillors Fraser Massey and Sue Sammons have also spoken of their opposition to the plan and Cllr Massey has been invited by committee chair Sara Muldowney to speak at next week's committee meeting.