Council Ensures School Buses For Term One

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has stepped in to ensure Napier and Hastings school children have access to urban school bus services from the beginning of term one 2009.

School services are not part of the urban services contract run by either the Regional Council or the Ministry of Education funded school services.

Schools have not been able to secure commercial services for students who need to bus in from outside their school zone. The Regional Council has assisted and provided limited funding to ensure these bus services can happen from day one of the new term, with as little disruption to families and schools as possible.

The services will be run by two providers, Go Bus (Council’s new urban bus provider) and also Nimon & Sons Ltd, while schools work through the issue of securing their own services.

The Council has put this interim solution in place which means that the urban school bus service operating at the start of 2009 will be the same as it was at the end of 2008.

From the end of term one 2009, it will the responsibility of local schools to implement a new school-funded system, which is consistent with other school services around the country.