ONE Scottish council has seen drivers diverted from bin collections to drive school buses after children were left with no transport
The Glasgow Times reported how school bus services were cancelled in North Lanarkshire after Strathclyde Partnership for Transport was unable to provide buses when a number of contracted firms dropped out.
A number of routes were left with no buses on Wednesday when schools returned.
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The organisation said that reasons given included driver availability and pressures related to inflation, such as the rise in the cost of fuel.
North Lanarkshire Council has now said it will use some of its appropriately trained drivers but that means suspending some bin collections.
The council has a legal responsibility to provide school transport to those children who are eligible.
The council said in an update: “While work has been carried out to reduce the number of school bus routes affected, many remain unserviced. The council has a legal duty to transport children who are eligible to school.
"To assist SPT, who have sourced some additional buses but have been unable to engage drivers, some of our appropriately trained and qualified drivers will be required to drive buses for school transport.
“While we will seek to engage replacement drivers as quickly as possible, this means that we have taken the difficult decision to suspend collection of blue paper and card bins for the next three weeks, until Monday September 12.”
The council apologised and asked residents not to present their blue bins for collection during that time.
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