School traffic causes chaos in Hartford (From Northwich Guardian)

School traffic causes chaos in Hartford

10:20am Monday 28th January 2013 in News By Gina Bebbington

School traffic causes chaos in Hartford

A FRUSTRATED taxi driver said school traffic is making journeys through Hartford almost impossible.

He drives students between Macclesfield and Hartford on a daily basis and said it can take him more than 45 minutes just to travel along Greenbank Lane.

The driver, who asked not to be named, said the situation has worsened since the Christmas holidays.

“The children I take home have special needs and it’s particularly frustrating for them,” he said.

“We can be stuck behind Greenbank estate until 3.45pm.

“I pick them up in the morning at 7.50am and they’re dropped back off at home at 4.40pm so it’s a nine-hour day for them and it isn’t fair.

“I come out of Greenbank Lane and turn off up through Hartford but the rest of the journey to Macclesfield is quicker than it is to go a mile up the road.

“There’s a number of schools in Hartford all coming out at the same time.”

He wondered if the controversial decision made by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) to stop providing free school buses to faith school pupils and post-16 students may have added to the traffic.

Greenbank Lane now serves three faith schools, St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School, St Nicholas Catholic High School and Hartford CE High School, as well as post-16 Mid Cheshire College and Greenbank Residential School.

A CWAC spokesman said: “Faith school transport was a discretionary spend for us that we didn’t have to do and as part of cost saving measures we removed the spend from September.

“We have worked extensively with the two faith schools and with commercial services and the faith school buses that were withdrawn have been pretty much replaced with commercial services – so a very similar level of service remains there.

“The only exception is in outlying areas where there may only be one or two pupils but in many cases schools send out minibuses to collect them.

“There’s no reason why pupils cannot repy on another service.

“It comes down to parental choice – maybe they’ve decided to do the school run themselves.”