Great News! The Chigwell Yellow Bus is going to increase the number of buses for school provision which will reduce travel times for students using their services!
Most of you already know that Chigwell Row Residents Association has been working in partnership with Epping Forest Community Transport.
Charity No: 1148539 Registered Company Limited by Guarantee No: 7983448
Email: efct@efcommunitytransport.org.uk Web: www.efcommunitytransport.org.uk, in supporting local residents get their children to school safely and reducing traffic within the Chigwell community.
At present Epping Forest Community Transport are offering one minibus to Chigwell (High Road), Davenant Foundation, Debden Park High and West Hatch High schools. A second minibus could be available if we can increase the interest therefore reducing the time required for student travel and increasing pick up locations.
The same minibus serves our ageing community to access Epping High Street, Epping Retail Park or Debden High street. The service is a Demand Response Service, DaRT8 for more information please contact Epping Forest Community Transport 01992 579556, email efct@efcommunitytransport.org.uk, follow Epping Forest Community Transport on Facebook.
We would like to say a Thank you to Epping Forest Community Transport for its dedication to our residents and all the parents who worked with us to make this happen."
We posted recently and shared details of the new Yellow Bus Schools service that will be offering a competitively priced alternative for parents wishing to send their children to Debden Park High School, Davenant Foundation School, Chigwell School and West Hatch High School.
The service will save parents hundreds of pounds as the bus services will not charge for Holidays or COVID-19 school closures, a facet of the new service that challenges the economic practices deployed by existing private commercial bus operators. Moreover, using these buses maintains the local legacy introduced by previous Chigwell Parish Councillors and ensures that we have a continuing return from that investment.
It is now confirmed that Essex Council will fund all travel for children attending the catchment school West Hatch, if your home is 3 miles or further away from the school. This was thanks to a challenge from CRRA. More details can be found (here)
Some parents have expressed concern that the journey times to West Hatch School will take their children up to 1 hour, due to an elongated route via other schools. Thankfully on your behalf Chigwell Row Residents Association (CRRA) have continued negotiations with Epping Forest Community Transport (EFCT) and it is hoped that from the start of next half-term there will be an additional bus and potentially two additional buses if demand for the service increases.
So if all goes well, from the 1st of November 2021 bus journeys to all the schools on the list will start later and have much shorter journey times. CRRA is working with EFCT and will be sharing some draft schedules very soon!
Chairman Wilson Chowdhry, said:
"This is great news for parents and their children who attend our local schools.
"The extra sleep and additional time to study through shorter journeys is sure to improve local educational standards.
"Moreover, the safe bespoke operational practices deployed by EFCT, will reassure parents concerned about travel of their young ones to school.
"EFCT are doing their utmost to tailor each service to the needs of local families and we should really get behind them to make this happen.
"Our community needs to bolster EFCT's community-centred vision by being patient while a school transport develops, that will bring a long-term legacy for the young people of Chigwell.
One of the reasons that the change in bus numbers cannot be introduced immediately is the need for a new driver or two. With that in mind EFCT have chosen CRRA to promote their job vacancy and we hope that this may provide some much needed employment locally. If you are interested in the post please respond to the advert below:
With little or no spare vehicle capacity it will be about as reliable as the single vessel Tilbury-Gravesend ferry.
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