A mother in Pateley Bridge has raised concerns about the cost of getting children to sixth form on the bus.

Sariah Broadhead’s son attends St. Aidan’s Church of England High School in Harrogate.

Nidderdale High School, the only secondary school in Pateley Bridge, does not have a sixth form so her son has to travel for his education.

Ms Broadhead has to pay £660 a year for a bus ticket — something she has had to do for her three other children in the past.

The price of the ticket has become an increasing concern as the cost of living crisis bites. She said:

“With everything going up, with the price, everything is really high.”

Children up to Year 11 are entitled to free travel to their nearest school if they live more than a three-mile walk away.

Pupils can use commercial buses or special services provided by North Yorkshire County Council.

However, although the age for leaving education has increased to 18, no provision has been made for free school transport for over 16s.

Parents can buy a yearly ticket from the county council but this also costs £650 for the year.

Read more

• Starbeck dad says ‘unreliable’ buses are making daughter late for school
• Electrifying Harrogate’s school buses ‘has to be cost effective’

Sariah Broadhead has to pay £660 for her son’s bus pass (photo: Sariah Broadhead).

This has proved to be a problem in Nidderdale because there are no school buses into Harrogate.

Instead, Ms Broadhead’s son has to take the Harrogate Bus Company’s 24 service.

The company does not provide annual tickets for the route, forcing her to buy a pass which covers the whole of the north of England.

Mrs Broadhead believes the situation has left her “in a catch-22”. She added:

“This is the only option we have. Things are getting tighter.”

In response, a Harrogate Bus Company spokesman said:

“We welcome customer feedback on our ticket range, and fully understand justifiable concerns about the cost of living and financial pressures being experienced across the country.

“The annual version of our Gold pass for under-19s and students represents very good value, especially as it gives unlimited travel throughout our entire network from Manchester and Preston to Scarborough and Whitby, for the equivalent of less than £12.70 a week.”

North Yorkshire County Council has defended its decision to increase bus fares for children who do not qualify for free travel by 18% and for students aged over 16 by £100 over the next two years.

Following the move being pushed forward at a non-public meeting on Tuesday, the council said it had been left with no choice but to increase the charges for its home to school transport if the key service was to be maintained.

The decision is likely to mean the annual school transport charge for sixth-formers rises by 5.24%, in line with inflation, to £650 from September.

In addition, the council is set to charge £50 extra from September and a further £50 more from September 2023 for any spare seats on buses available to children aged five to 16 who do not attend their most local school, bringing their annual bill to £650.

Ahead of the meeting the authority’s opposition leader, Cllr Stuart Parsons, had urged executive members and senior officers to recognise the cost of living crisis by abandoning the proposals and drop all charges to low income families.

Cllr Parsons said: 

“Where do they think people will find all this extra money? They are constantly talking about keeping young people in the area, upskilling people so it becomes a high wage economy, and with this they are basically putting a tax on obligatory education, and that’s completely unacceptable.

“It’s ludicrous as everyone’s talking about the cost of living crisis. This will make life more and more difficult for families that cannot afford all these increases. What they’re doing is pricing young people out of the education they’re entitled to.”

Read more:

• ‘Shocking state’ of Sharow roads prevents motorists from going green
• Knaresborough car park in line for £30,000 resurfacing

Stuart Carlton, the council’s corporate director of children and young people’s services, said following a consultation in 2018, a decision was made to gradually increase the contribution made by families of pupils not eligible for free home-to-school transport where there were spare seats on a school bus service.

He said the process had been due to be completed in coming school year and would have seen contributions rise by £100 for those using any spare seats on school transport.

Mr Carlton said: 

“The decision was taken in consultation with the executive member for education and skills to limit the increase to £50, staggering it over an additional year. Support will also continue for families on low incomes, which will benefit from an overall discount of 50% on the cost.

“We don’t have a statutory duty to provide transport to young people in post-16 education and to pupils who don’t qualify for home-to-school transport, but we wish to continue to offer this service wherever we can. Unfortunately, this means increasing the cost.

“This charge does not cover the full cost of transporting students and is still only a contribution towards the full amount, with the rest met by the county council.”

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

£11 million Station Gateway a ‘haphazard whim’

Despite all the consultations undertaken by North Yorkshire County Council and others, it seems as though Councillor Don Mackenzie’s scheme is to be implemented whether we like it, or not.

Buoyed by the cycling fraternity that requires cycle lanes everywhere, we are to spend £11million on what is essentially resurfacing of two streets. Oh and a hundred yards of cycle lane that links up to nothing and finishes nowhere.

NYCC spent big in Ripon city centre 20 years ago, it was an utter disaster from the start and still looks dreadful. The poor people of Ripon will, I’m sure testify as to what an ungodly mess NYCC has perpetrated upon them so the chances of getting an impressive out turn in Harrogate isn’t that promising.

But wait, if we are serious about cycling provision the thinking and implementation needs to be joined up, not just a haphazard whim of our local councillor and a couple of cycling pressure groups.

The Stray Act is outdated and needs reform to meet the modern world, the act needs amending to allow cycling on the Stray. We need to stop replacing every square inch of grass with a similar area near the Woodlands pub

Then install a cycleway from Knaresborough Road at the back of the hospital over Wetherby Road, Oatlands Drive, Stray Rein, the railway, and Leeds Road terminating at the Otley Road cycleway that is about to start.

Provide raised plateaus at each road crossing to give cyclists priority.

This arrangement will provide mega cycle route infrastructure through town from east to west and north to south, much safer than on road schemes, cause very little disruption during construction and will give a lasting legacy.

But do we have the bottle to even consider it?

David Howarth, Harrogate

Traffic evidence based on ‘flawed modelling’

Having watched and listened to the Station Gateway presentation on Thursday evening, the reason for the loss of the major A61 route through Harrogate is now clear.

It seems that all the modelling for this project was made using flow numbers taken during lockdown. No wonder pedestrian and vehicle numbers were so low and unrealistic, and the road had been made so narrow!

Before all this costly and wide-ranging change is passed and thrust upon us, please can we have a re-run using typical A61 working day traffic?

Living on this north/south A61 national highway, we are fully aware of the normal use of this main road, which became unusually quiet during pandemic restrictions and road renovations.

There is often heavy traffic in both directions and a real need for the central crossing bollards erected at needful places between the wide traffic lanes.

Half of this traffic will pass down Parliament Street, but the equivalent southbound traffic has to join the shoppers and bus/train users in Station Parade. The video seemed not to show any of this.

The question raised about access to the A61 from the conference centre car-park was scarcely addressed, except to infer that there was no need to cater for it.

It will certainly be a dangerous place for cyclists on either side of the road, let alone pedestrians.

So serious re-run, please, with realism. There is so much new building going on in and around our town that all numbers will surely soon outgrow this dream.

Beryl Dunsby, Harrogate

Read more:

• In Depth: To BID or not to BID? Divided opinion in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon
• Beech Grove closure officially extended until August 2022

Packed school buses explain Harrogate’s soaring covid rate

I’m not surprised the covid rate is rising. I accompanied my grandson on the school bus Harrogate to Knaresborough a few days ago and it was rammed. Children about 11-15/16 stood and sat shoulder to shoulder. Not one more person could have got on.

No windows were open and not one person except me had a mask on, not even the driver.

My friend in Brighton is suffering a bad dose of covid following an informal singing session. Out of the 70 there at least 30 have tested positive. They had ventilation and and all are double vaccinated.

I’ve read of a new variant, highly contagious, which is suspected in a few cases including a friend’s wife who is currently very ill in hospital down south. It’s been reported in Japan, six cases last I read a few days ago, and Australia, one case, similarly a few days ago, maybe a week.

I’ve heard nothing apart from that. I don’t follow news closely, it’s too depressing.

Teresa Liddell Shepherd, Harrogate

Double standards by cyclists

The Stray Ferret reported Harrogate District Cycle Action group commenting on Tesco’s arguments concerning sustainability:  “That is greenwash, and based on nothing more than a far-fetched hope” and that there should be “segregated, protected cycle tracks on either side of Skipton Road”.

This is the organisation who is actively supporting the Otley Road cycle way also based on nothing more than a far-fetched hope. They have never provided any evidence that it will see motorists on Otley Road forsaking their cars. Or that those motorists are happy to have a narrow pavement, become a shared non-segregated cycle path for Otley Road residents and pedestrians to negotiate.

Double standards?

Chris Dicken, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Yesterday, the Stray Ferret published an investigation that found that children in Harrogate are being taken to school in diesel buses that are amongst the dirtiest and most polluting vehicles on our roads.

We discovered through a freedom of information request that 50% of these buses are over a decade old and almost 20% of these go back at least 20 years.

University of Leeds climate scientist and Harrogate resident Professor Piers Forster told the Stray Ferret that the old school buses will be having a damaging impact on children’s lungs in Harrogate.

He called on North Yorkshire County Council to electrify the school bus fleet.

The County Council’s response: 

Michael Leah, assistant director for transport and the environment at NYCC, said the council is working with Transdev to bid for government funding for electric buses.

However, it is not clear how many of these buses would be used on school routes should the bid be successful.

He said:

“Bus companies are bound by regulatory compliance and as a home to school transport authority we are required to seek best value for money in securing transport provision.   

“We have also set an aspiration of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 or as near to that date as possible; accordingly we work closely with our bus operators moving towards a more modern fleet.

“Indeed we are working with The Harrogate Bus Company, part of Transdev, on a scheme that – if the funding bid succeeds – would see 39 zero-emission buses delivered in Harrogate over the next three years.”

The bus companies response: 

The Stray Ferret contacted the four main school bus providers in Harrogate to ask what they are doing to clean up their fleet.

Craig Temple, managing director of Connexionsbuses said because it is a family-owned business, any upgrades have to be “cost-effective”. He said none of their buses are 20 years old.

“When providing commercial school services, as ours are in Harrogate, our main priority is to provide a value for money, safe and reliable service.

“Each bus carries 70-80 pupils, and as such takes that number of cars off the road. The pollution from this number of cars would massively increase the impact on everyone’s health, and cause congestion (which further damages peoples health).

“I think most people fail to realise what the effect would be on parents through ticket prices if we were to buy much newer vehicles (or even new) at a cost of nearly £400,000 each.

“To purchase vehicles less than 10 years old would add massive costs on to the daily tickets of the children travelling, which, in turn, would no doubt lead to less travelling on the bus and more cars on the road, leading to more congestion and pollution.”

Steve Ottley, general manager of Harrogate Bus Company said some children go to school on electric buses that are part of its main network.

“We are one of 10 operators that run school buses in the district and so this survey is not a representation of our impact as an individual operator. Over 95% of our total fleet is ultra-low or zero emission, running all day and night, compared to school buses which will only run two trips a day.

“As a result of integrating the school bus network into our main network, which improves ticketing and connectivity for customers, the numbers of specific school buses have been reduced, and a third of specific school journeys are now run by electric or ultra-low emission vehicles.

“The remaining five buses are fitted with Greenroad telematics technology to limit fuel usage and idling, and we continue our programme to transform to a fully zero-emission bus operation for Harrogate in the coming years.”

Abbotts of Leeming and York Pullman did not respond.

Read more:

• Stray Ferret reveals high number of old and harmful school buses in Harrogate
• Air pollution at Bond End in Knaresborough meets legal limits for first time

Schools response:

The Stray Ferret also contacted Harrogate’s four public high schools to ask if they were concerned with our findings and what they were doing to encourage cleaner buses. St Aidan’s and St John Fisher did not respond.

Helen Woodcock, the headteacher at Rossett School, said the school actively promotes cycling and walking to its students.

“Technology has moved on in the last 30 years, from a period where leaded fuel was considered acceptable, to a real focus on the need to use sustainable sources of energy for transport.

“Some of our students use the new public electric bus services to get to school and we actively promote the alternatives of cycling and walking to all parents and students. The school student council have focused on recommending other sustainable changes to school life over the years.

“We have a policy that buses directly controlled by NYCC have to enter the school site and turn off their engines whilst waiting for students.

“We look forward to changes in government policy impacting on legal limits for emissions as they move towards fulfilling the promises made in 2019, in the amendments to the Climate Change Act.”

A Harrogate Grammar School spokesperson said it provides in-house new minibuses on four school bus routes.

NYCC provides 11 bus routes to HGS and several are shared with Rossett pupils.

“Harrogate Grammar School directly manage four bus routes to and from the following destinations including the surrounding areas; Pateley Bridge, Tadcaster, Boroughbridge and Leeds.

“We no longer use external coach providers for the Leeds and Tadcaster routes, we operate these services in-house with our own Ultra Low Emission Zone compliant minibuses. Our minibuses are leased brand new and receive regular services and vehicle checks to ensure high standards are kept.

“The two remaining routes however, Pateley Bridge and Boroughbridge, are too over-populated for minibuses and so we work closely with our coach providers in ensuring the high standards of these vehicles provided. We source the most local firms with capacity to fulfil the route requirements which ensures that emissions are reduced.

“NYCC also manage school routes which combine at least 3 routes with Harrogate Grammar School and Rossett High School which we are happy to support to reduce further vehicles on the road.”

A Stray Ferret investigation has found that children in Harrogate are being taken to school in diesel buses that are amongst the dirtiest and most polluting vehicles on our roads.

As our local councils push for sustainable transport, we have discovered that schoolchildren in Harrogate are being allowed to get to school on buses that are over 20 years old and pump out high levels of toxic fumes that can harm their growing lungs.

The Stray Ferret sent a freedom of information request to North Yorkshire County Council, which is in charge of school buses in the district, asking them for the registration number of every bus contracted to pick up and drop off children at Harrogate district secondary schools.

The council awards contracts to private bus providers to run routes.

We then used DVLA data to find out what year the vehicle was made and what type of fuel it used. We found that all 91 buses that were currently taxed and MOT’d are fuelled by diesel.

Almost 50% of these buses are over a decade old and almost 20% of these go back at least 20 years.

How old are Harrogate’s school buses?

“Not appropriate anymore”

These older buses pump out significantly higher levels of air pollution compared with newer models.

European Union emissions tests on buses made 20 years ago found they produce over 10 times as much nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions than buses made in the last five years. This figure halves for buses made around 2011.

The Stray Ferret also observed some school buses outside St Aidans, Rossett, and Harrogate Grammar school with their engines idle, effectively creating concentrated arenas of air pollution as children end the school day.

University of Leeds climate scientist and Harrogate resident Professor Piers Forster told the Stray Ferret that the old school buses will be having a damaging impact on children’s lungs in Harrogate.

He said:

“That is the time when your lungs are developing. It’s not just kids on buses, either, but those who walk or cycle have to stand by these buses that are belting out diesel. It’s not really appropriate anymore.”

What damage can diesel fumes cause?

A 14-year-old Abbotts of Leeming school bus on the Prince of Wales roundabout

Knowledge about the harm diesel fumes can cause to children’s growing lungs has been known for decades.

Diesel buses pump out nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions through their exhausts. Multiple studies have found it can cause reduced lung function in children, trigger asthma attacks and hospital admissions.

Diesel also produces particulate matter (PM2.5) particles which when breathed in can penetrate deep into the lungs and be absorbed into the bloodstream. It’s been linked with a myriad of health impacts for children, including asthma.

Read more:

• Green Shoots: Why Harrogate should be at the vanguard of tackling climate change
• Green Shoots: Harrogate district plumber swaps ‘dirty diesel’ for vegetable fat

In a landmark case in December 2020, a coroner said air pollution from diesel vehicles contributed to the death of nine-year-old Londoner Ella Kissi-Debrah due to her exposure to toxic exhaust fumes near her home by a busy road.

Sarah Hart is a parent of a child at Harrogate Grammar School who previously went to Western Primary School on Cold Bath Road. She told the Stray Ferret that her daughter suffers from a lung condition that she believes is exacerbated by air pollution from Harrogate’s school buses.

Buses outside St Aidan’s

She said:

“She found the experience of walking to Western really uncomfortable as she has issues with her lungs.

“The buses are really, really old. When they are stationary you can physically see the fumes.

“They should try and get cleaner buses.”

Jemima Hartshorn created a campaign group to tackle air pollution called Mums for Lungs. She told the Stray Ferret that it was “worrying” that so many of Harrogate’s buses are “very old” and use “very polluting diesel”.

She added:

“We really urge schools, authorities and bus companies to work together and electrify this bus fleet to ensure pollution levels across Yorkshire drop and health levels increase.”

“We need electric buses”

A 16-year-old Transdev bus on Hookstone Drive

Not only does air pollution have a potentially deadly impact on children’s lungs, but a 2019 US study also found it affects cognitive performance too.

It reported that children who went to school on diesel buses that had been retrofitted to make them cleaner achieved 10% better exam results at the end of the school year, particularly in English.

It also found that the children saw improvements in cardiovascular health, meaning cleaning up Harrogate’s school buses would have widespread benefits.

Prof Forster added:

“We certainly need a bus fleet that is ideally electric and kids biking and walking to school as much as possible, this is better than anything for both their health and their social development.”

Tomorrow we ask the council, schools and bus companies what they are doing to tackle air pollution on school buses.

Extra buses will be provided by North Yorkshire County Council next week to reduce the risk of coronavirus among pupils using public transport go back to school.

The local authority has also introduced additional bus safety measures, such as asking pupils aged over 11 to wear face coverings.

Most buses will operate according to their usual timetable. But some additional journeys will take place on public service routes from next week to minimise contact among passengers as the number of pupils and commuters increases.

In Harrogate, the following additional services will be in place from September 7:

• Service 36 Leeds – Harrogate – Ripon: Extra journeys between Leeds and Harrogate will occur during morning rush hour to accommodate additional commuters and students.
• Service 1 Harrogate – Knaresborough. An additional journey has been added to this service from Harrogate to King James’ School, which is reserved for pupils only. It will depart from Harrogate at 7.56am and return from King James’ School at 3.25pm.
• Service 24 Pateley Bridge – Harrogate. A new timetable and journey to Nidderdale High School has been added. An additional bus, 24S, is reserved for school and college students. It will depart Pateley Bridge at 7.20am to Harrogate and continue to St Aidan’s and St John Fisher schools. A journey from St John Fisher and St Aidan’s schools to Pateley Bridge will return in the afternoon.

Read more:

• Schools across the district are set to reopen next week, staggered finish times and year group separation are some of the safety measures being imposed. 
• Parents in the district have said they are “delighted” to have their children’s education resume next week. 

Different safety measures will apply on school buses to those on public transport.

Social distancing is not required on school buses on the grounds that the vehicles will carry the same group of children regularly and no members of the public travel with them.

But school bus users will be asked to avoid unnecessary contact with other pupils by, for example, trying to sit in the same seat with the same group of pupils every day. Pupils aged over 11 are also encouraged to wear face coverings.

Cllr Patrick Mulligan, executive member for education at NYCC, said:

“We would like to reassure parents and pupils that everything possible is being done to enable children to return to school and education as swiftly as possible, as well as minimise the risk of spreading the virus. The instructions for travelling on school buses and straight forward and largely the same as if you were visiting a shop or other public place.

“We expect that things will soon feel second nature to pupils and they can settle back into their school routine quickly.”