SIR

The service given to children,travelling on school buses, and especially over the age of 16, has now been shambolic for two years.

During two weeks of the new term,  children have been refused transport by coach operators, as they have no passes and on the grounds that the council's letter stating they are to be allowed to travel is not acceptable.

Parents have had to scramble to run their children to school, as following buses would not get them there on time.

Transport has been illegal, with up to 15 children having to stand up on buses, with pupils on the  Raglan bus reporting a driver using his mobile phone while driving.  

In addition, after parental complaints, the transport department allowed the owner of the coach company to question children directly on the schoolyard about the performance of his company, without informing their parents.

I would like to ask if it is council policy for any contractor to question children on company performance, at school, without  parental permission? And does this policy extend to all council contractors: plumbers, electricians, delivery people? Or is an exception being made for a favoured coach company?

The council's transport department also maintains that they are not at fault for this chaos and states that parents are responsible for their children's problems - by failing to fill in the right forms.  Forms which parents say they have not received.

Fortunately for the safety of  Raglan children, a pupil filmed  the  coach driver using his mobile and, finally faced with this indisputable evidence,  the council has stated that he was subsequently sacked.

Since safety concerns only seem to be taken seriously by the council if filmed evidence is supplied, I would suggest that all Monmouthshire pupils who are aware of safety infringements (the use of mobiles while driving, overcrowding with too many pupils having to stand and including being forced to sit on the floor) record the incident and give the film to their parents, who can decide whether to provide the police or the council with necessary evidence before an accident occurs.

JT Oakley

Raglan