Parents' School Bus Protest

25 March 2013, 06:00 | Updated: 25 March 2013, 11:58

A protest over plans to cut funding for school buses to Luton's Cardinal Newman Catholic School's seen parents take their children in their cars instead.

Parents claim getting rid of the school buses, which take hundreds of children to school and back every day, will lead to chaos on the roads with parents diving them in instead.

To prove this, they did a 'trial-run' on Monday 25 March 2013 in hope of proving to the council that stoping the funding would be a mistake.

Antoinette Kotula, who has a child starting at Cardinal Newman in September, told Heart it will make the already busy A6 and Warden Hill even worse and cause misery for residents.

The alternative to driving her son to school would be putting him on a public bus, something she doesn't want to do.  As well as being expensive, Antoinette says she'd worry about his safety.

"The transition into higher school is enough in itself without then putting the complications of the bus," she said.

"The safety of them getting on the school bus everyday and going to school everyday is very important."

After parents dropped their children at the school gates at 8.30am, using their cars, and doing the journey home at 3.30pm, a protest was planned outside Luton Town Hall at 5.30pm.

Luton Borough Council are due to make a decision on Monday 29 April 2013 over whether or not to stop the faith school bus funding.

A statement from Luton Borough Council said they have had review travel arrangements running between homes and schools because it costs more than a million pounds each year.