Parents in Paulton have joined forces with local Councillors to try and get an affordable coach service to ease congestion and help secondary school pupils get to both Norton Hill and Somervale Schools in neighbouring Midsomer Norton.

The campaign began when resident, Helen Hawkins, took to Facebook to talk about the problems she had with getting her son to secondary school in Midsomer Norton and her daughter to primary school in Paulton. Her son wanted to catch the bus to school, which meant that she could walk her daughter and not have to drive, however, because of the lack of reliable services and seat capacity, she has had to resort to using her car to get both her children to their individual schools. She, along with fellow residents, Miranda Stevens and Lisa James, have now taken up the challenge to get a coach service for the village schoolchildren.

Buses to the schools do service the village, however, both are public buses, with limited space. The Somer Bus Service, which is privately run, is often full, while the other service, supplied by First Bus, has been found to be unreliable, leaving parents no choice but to use their cars in order to get their secondary-aged children to school on time and their younger children to the infant and junior schools.

This has raised concerns with parents about congestion on the roads in Paulton and about the safety of children attending the schools in the village with extra traffic on the roads. It was an issue that was raised when the new housing developments and subsequent expansion of the Junior and Infant schools. Pupils living three miles away from the secondary schools, in villages such as Timsbury and Tunley, do have transport laid on for them, but Paulton children are not far enough away to benefit.

Miranda, Lisa and Helen have now teamed up with Paulton's B&NES Councillors, John Bull and Liz Hardman, to look into setting up an affordable coach service to transport the children to Secondary Schools using the Section 106 money granted to B&NES after the new housing estates were built in the village.

"The S106 money has been used for transport," Cllr Bull said, "But we specifically need it to go towards school transport." Cllr Hardman said: "At the moment, there are 265 children from Paulton travelling to Norton Hill and Somervale Schools – this number will only grow this coming September and onwards as more children make the move to Secondary School and more families move into the new housing in the village. We have looked into getting school transport, but unfortunately, the Somer Bus does not have the capacity for extra busses and quotes from private firms have been too expensive."

Helen Hawkins added: "What we are looking for is forward planning – this is an ongoing issue."

The group said they had attended a meeting with Alun Williams, Head of Norton Hill and Somervale Schools, when he came to speak to parents at Paulton Infant and Junior School recently.

"The schools have looked into laying on transport, but it wasn't financially viable," said Helen. "It isn't completely an issue of cost," Miranda added, "We want afforable transport, not free transport."

Parents have said they do not mind the cost of the existing service. The Somer Bus costs £1 each way and First, 75p, however, the issue is that it isn't always possible to use these services to get to school.

"What we need is to ensure that our children will actually get to school on time, without us having to use our cars to clog up the roads around Paulton visiting both schools. We need affordable, reliable transport. It would be great if B&NES Council were able to subsidise a reliable coach service to get children from Paulton to Midsomer Norton."

The parents, along with Liz Hardman and John Bull, are now taking the campaign to B&NES Council, before the start of the new school term.