THERE will be no extra bus services for children left without a privilege bus seat for the upcoming academic year.

More than 100 children have been left without a bus seat and placed on a waiting list across seven different bus services.

These children are not eligible for free transport as they attend a school outside their catchment area.

Louise Coombs, from Brighstone, has struggled to get her two children a seat on a privilege bus.

She said she looked at different options however, a public bus would not get the children to school before 9.30am.

She said a car share would not work and hiring a minibus would cost each parent £7 a day.

Mrs Coombs has since secured a seat for both children on a bus.

However, she said: “There are more parents out there who still don’t have transport to school.”

Cabinet member for children’s services, Paul Brading, said: “When parents make their choice to send their child to another school it’s their responsibility to make sure they can get their child there.

“We are fortunate that we have these services available — not all areas have privilege bus seats.”

Mrs Coombs said under the Home Office guidelines she had a right to a bus service.

The guidelines for local authorities states: “The Secretary of State continues to attach importance to the opportunity that many parents have to choose a school or college in accordance with their religious or philosophical beliefs, and believes that wherever possible, local authorities should ensure that transport arrangements support the religious or philosophical preference parents express.”

Mrs Coombs said: “It is our right to a bus as it’s our belief to go to a smaller school for our children.”

Parliamentary candidate for the Isle of Wight Greens, Vix Lowthion, said the lack of seats would result in an extra 78,000 car journeys on the Isle of Wight each year.

She said: “Public transport is a public good. We must support school transport which adequately meets the needs of our young people – and gets cars off the road.

“The council talks of being cost effective, but parents taking time off work or paying for additional child care is not a cost effective way to get a child to school.”

Responding to the claims, Cllr Brading said: “I am all for keeping cars off the road and our bus contract does help to do that.

“If we did not have the contract we would have more cars on the road — you could look at it the other way around.

“We do our best by making spare seats on the buses are available to parents.”