Parents Onboard With Councils Taking Over School Buses

Thursday, 10 April 2025, 7:07 pm
Article: Max Frethey - Local Democracy Reporter

A proposal for regional councils to take over responsibility for the public school bus network has been supported by parents who have protested “rigid” Ministry of Education bus rules.

Last week, Nelson City Council agreed to take the suggestion to Local Government New Zealand, which represents councils nationwide, to see if there was wider support from the sector.

Mayor Nick Smith acknowledged that the change would be a “massive reform” involving hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.

However, he thought the existing system was “cumbersome” and that councils should run the services due to their local knowledge, as well as the potential to reduce congestion and find efficiencies by integrating the services into existing public transport networks.

“Trying to run 1800 school bus services from officials in Wellington, under regulations that are now almost 100 years old, is not going to be very responsive.”

It would increase the viability of extending public transport to more distant communities, such as those in Nelson North, he added.

Chair of the region’s transport committee and Tasman’s deputy mayor, Stuart Bryant, agreed that the proposal was worth exploring.

The Ministry of Education currently manages school bus routes where distance or accessibility may be a barrier for students.

Parents have raised concerns over the Ministry’s past decisions, including scrapping some school bus routes and refusing bus stop requests.

Ministry of Education officials presented to the regional committee in December.

They highlighted that school bus routes were sometimes withdrawn when public transport was expanded, and that the Ministry was only responsible for the safety of the bus stop, with caregivers being responsible for getting children to and from bus stops safely.

Bryant said that concerns have not only been raised regionally but also across the South Island with how the “outdated” school bus rules were applied by the Ministry.

Residents had approached the council over several years with specific concerns about the school bus network.

“It’s something we haven't been able to resolve with the Ministry,” he said. “We would like them to show some more flexibility.”

In Tasman, Māpua parent Amber Bonny has spent 3 years campaigning to allow students to get onto their school bus at Māpua School where it parks overnight, rather than having to travel to a bus stop on Dominion Road which she says is not safe.

The Ministry has denied that possibility, and repeatedly asserted the bus stop itself meets the national safe siting guidelines, though Bonny said the stop was now being reviewed.

She was supportive of the proposal, saying that Tasman District Council has more local knowledge to inform decisions on routes and could ensure a “common sense” approach was taken.

“Every region will have their own issues, but there's no way that the Wellington people can actually understand them.”

However, if councils took over the services, they would also need to ensure it was free to remove barriers for children attending school, Bonny said.

“It’s really important to look at making sure all the kids have equal access to transport.”

Over in northern Nelson, Todds Valley parent Allison Daughtery has raised concerns in the past about the safety of a Ministry bus stop in northern Nelson which children cross a state highway to access.

The Ministry reviewed the stop and moved it further down the road, but that didn’t solve the issue of children crossing the road.

Daughtery largely agreed with Bonny.

“I don’t think it would be a bad idea,” she said. “The Ministry’s policies are actually quite rigid.”

“People that we spoke to were in offices in Rotorua that had no concept … it’s very easy for them to sit there in a remote office and make that decision, but it’s not their kids crossing the road.”

She thought the proposal could allow for smaller buses to travel into Todds Valley, where larger school buses couldn’t navigate, to pick up local children rather than needing them to travel to the state highway.

But she also wondered if the change could require caregivers to pay unlike on public school buses.

Rhona Hewitt, the Ministry of Education’s acting group manager for school transport, said the Ministry was aware of Nelson City Council's proposal.

“The Ministry is always willing to explore opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of school transport services,” she said.

“We note that the proposed transfer of services from the Ministry to public transport authorities would have funding and operational implications that would need to be carefully considered.”

Nelson City Council's remit would need the support of four other councils, or a zone committee or sector group, before it was voted on by the wider membership of Local Government New Zealand.

If LGNZ support the remit at its July conference, the organisation would then lobby the Government on the proposal.

Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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