Free bus travel for Brighton school children extended

Students from Longhill High School will continue to receive free bus travel to school, with the scheme being extended to reach more families.

Brighton and Hove City Council reviewed the student’s walking routes to school and found that the route along Whitehawk to Longhill which sees them walk via Wilson Avenue and Warren Road was “unsuitable”.

A second route along the coastal road was previously deemed “unsafe”.

Students with a BN2 5 postcode at the high school can now apply for a free bus pass.

The council will be carrying out a similar review of school walking routes across the city in the autumn.

The route via Warren Road was deemed unsuitable (Image: Google)

Councillor Emma Daniel, cabinet member for children, families and youth services, said: “As a council we are committed to listening to our residents, so when families in Whitehawk contacted us to question whether the existing routes to and from school were suitable for their children, we listened and agreed to review the historic arrangements.

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“Our findings supported what we were being told by local families, so we are expanding the free transport scheme to include more children living in Whitehawk and studying at Longhill.

“I would personally like to thank each of the families who contacted us about this. Every child deserves the same opportunities and access to education and we’re determined to remove any barriers or additional challenges wherever we find them.

“It is absolutely right that families should not be forced to pay for buses when there is no suitable alternative walking route and we know this extra cost will have been particularly felt during the cost-of-living crisis.

“All children should also be able to travel to and from school without arriving at lessons exhausted or anxious because they have had to make an unsafe journey.

“We will be carrying out a full review of home-to-school transport walking routes across the city in the autumn and if we find similar issues elsewhere, we will do all we can to rectify them.”