TEENAGERS will be paying £770 for a seat on the school bus as prices go up almost 60 per cent in a couple of years.

Starting in September, students over the age of 16 will need to pay £510 a year for a seat on a school bus – an increase of £25.

It will then go up to £640 in 2017 before reaching £770 in 2018.

This timeline was selected by the Children’s Services Overview Committee of the Dorset County Council after they were given three cost-recovery options by Children’s Services.

The move is part of county-wide cost-cutting after 45 per cent decrease of the local government grant. 

Some councillors expressed concerns about the plan and its impact on the teenagers who rely on school transport.

Cllr Mike Lovell said: “We don’t want to end up driving people out of rural communities because they cannot pay.”

In the end, the committee were divided as to which course of action they should take.

Half wanted to see the changes take place more slowly with the full rise not coming into place until two years later in 2020.

But Cllr Michael Bevan with the casting vote, as chairman of the committee, chose the faster route to recovering the costs of the service.

He said: “There was a desire on half the committee to get it all done in the shortest possible time rather than having the financial pain drawn out over a long period.

“It must be kept in mind that we also have created an option for parents to pay monthly.

“We are all concerned about the increased cost.

“With the disappointing result of the revenue support grant meaning that we have to find an extra £7.2 million, tough measures need to be taken.”

Currently children of school age are entitled to free school bus places.

However, this entitlement comes to an end at 16 years old.
From then on teenagers must pay for what is called a surplus seat.

Children’s services is under no obligation to provide free transport to these teenagers because when the school leaving age rose to 18, the age of those entitled to a seat on a school bus did not increase with it.

But young people who have used the school bus after the age of 16 have called into question how students working Saturday jobs will afford it. 

Jack Welch, from Weymouth, said: "This will come as a difficult blow not just to those young people who live in the most isolated parts of the county, but parents too who are left with no support to provide the means of post-16 education. 

“Public transport services simply do not respond to the needs of students, who earn barely a wage which just about covers bus fares.”