A furious mum has criticised a bus company after her daughter and other pupils were barred from the school bus.
Shelle Richmond was on her way to work on Wednesday morning when she got a call from her distressed daughter Ebony, 13, whose temporary bus pass had been rejected by the driver of the K5 First Bus service.
It is believed that several other Honley High School students were also left at the roadside in Meltham after experiencing the same problem with the school-issued bus passes.
“I just find it absolutely outrageous,” said Shelle. “This is a serious safeguarding issue and I believe it is against bus company policy to leave vulnerable people at a bus stop.”
She added: “We trust our children to this bus company. They should never leave a child on the roadside. Imagine if she didn’t have a phone to ring me or I wasn’t around.”
Shelle, who ended up being late for work after dropping off her daughter, said Ebony had shown the driver her pass and a copy of an email which stated that her application for a free bus pass was being processed.
Parents are now worried that the same thing will happen at the end of the school day today (Wed).
Shelle has lodged a complaint with bus company First Bus.
A spokesman for First Bus, Chris Burton, operations for the Yellow School Bus Service, said: "We’re sorry to hear that a pupil from Honley High School was unable to board one of our school services this morning, but I would like to reassure readers that we are investigating this complaint as a matter of urgency.
"We are working with the school and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to find a solution to recent issues with school bus services being full to capacity.”
A First Bus spokeswoman added that Honley High School had issued the temporary bus pass "without checking with the bus company."
She said the service in question was full which meant the driver hadn't bee able to take more pupils.
"There has been some confusion over temporary passes which we are hoping to resolve soon."
The spokeswoman said parents with concerns should contact First Bus.
