24/07/2025
Over the past couple of days I’ve had large numbers of people emailing me regarding the drastic fare increase for the Stagecoach buses, including a letter from the headteacher of Great Torrington School. This fare change impacts everyone, but particularly the children in Devon who use the public bus to get to school everyday. Apologies if I haven’t yet responded to your email and I want to assure you that it has not been ignored.
As far as I understand it, there was no consultation or communication that this change was going to take place. Families whose children go to a school outside of their catchment are seeing an 81% increase in school transport costs. The “return” ticket has been axed and so instead of paying £3.20 each day for a return ticket, they are now having to pay for two singles, equalling £5.80.
Many families are already struggling financially, and live on carefully planned budgets, so this change overnight is a real worry. In many cases it is making it unaffordable for children to be able to go to their chosen school, especially for families with multiple children, and is causing significant stress at the start of the school summer holidays.
When I heard about this, I immediately alerted all Devon county councillors, and yesterday I put it onto the Devon County Council’s cabinet agenda, under Items Requiring Urgent Attention. The cabinet voted unanimously to: a) write to Peter Knight the managing Director of Stagecoach highlighting their extreme concerns about the impact that the changes will have on families. b) that the Cabinet member for Climate Change and Bio-Diversity Cllr Jacqi Hodgson, as Chair of the Devon Enhanced Bus Partnership, raises this as an urgent item at the next partnership Board on the 30th July.
I am also pleased to see that Ian Roome MP has created a petition about this issue and I urge everyone to please sign it here: https://www.northdevonlibdems.org.uk/campaigns/halt-bus-fare-increases-north-devon
