Welcome as Education Authority to revise bus service for pupils forced to wait two hours to get home from school

Most pupils from Maghery, which is seven miles outside Portadown, had to wait almost two hours before their bus came to take them home.

However SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly lobbied the Education Authority which has agreed to revise and improve the service.

A spokesperson for the Education Authority (EA) said: “The EA has worked closely with Translink and is pleased to confirm that a revised and improved service schedule has been identified for pupils travelling from Portadown to Maghery.

“Planning for school restart is currently underway and details of school service timings will be confirmed as soon as possible.”

The Upper Bann MLA said she is delighted to receive confirmation that the home to school transport service to reduce the waiting time for ten young pupils from Maghery will now be put in place.

Just before Christmas, Mrs Kelly voiced her frustration at the Education Authority and had referred the matter to the Children’s Commissioner with the help of the parents.

She said: “Pupils had to wait for almost up to two hours for a bus home from school, this was unacceptable by any standard.

“I welcome the response that I have now received from the Education Authority which said ‘negotiations resumed after Christmas, it was agreed that a service would be introduced to drastically reduce waiting times in the afternoon. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 it had been intended that this service would be introduced and monitored in the final term of 19/20’.

Mrs Kelly added: “Work is on-going between the Education Authority and Translink to assess the impact of social distancing however; it is their intention to have this route in place when the home to school transport network is able to operate at full capacity.

“This unacceptable time for school children to be waiting one and a half hours falls far short of any reasonable public standards and I am delighted a resolution has now been found.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you