PARENTS are outraged after a Weymouth school announced it can no longer afford to run a bus service.

Budmouth College will stop funding its 88 service in July. 

The college has subsidised the bus, which runs from Preston to the college via Littlemoor, Broadwey and Southill, for about 10 years but is withdrawing funding due to budget restraints.

It contributes £30,000 towards the cost of the service, operated by First Wessex, with the rest made up by parents who pay for children’s passes. 

From September, pupils will instead have to take two public buses to school, changing in Weymouth town centre, as there is no direct bus.

Southill pupils will suffer more as there is no bus to town.

In a statement on the college website, acting principal Amanda Fortescue says school funding has been “substantially diminished” and that “setting a balanced budget under the current financial constraints has not been easy.”

She said: “I can only apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you and do appreciate it will be difficult news for some families. I can assure you this was not an easy decision to make.”

One parent, who did not wish to be named, says younger children rely heavily on the bus and claimed the decision will “take away their independence”. 

She said: “My son, who is in year seven, will now have to get a bus from Radipole to the King’s Statue, walk to Debenhams and get on another bus. I’m not happy for him to do that yet. 

“We live in Radipole and it is not walkable. I’m not comfortable with my son cycling all that way yet. The bus was a direct route and one of the contributing factors to us choosing the school. Had we known the bus was going to go, we might have viewed things differently.”

She added: “We understand schools are having difficulty with funding, and it must be horrendously difficult for them, but maybe they could look at other options?”

The 88 runs to college twice every in the morning and twice in the afternoon. 

The parent added: “They could have reduced the service to once in the morning and once in the afternoon. I have talked to other parents and we would have been happy to pay more money for it to continue.”

A spokesman for First Wessex confirmed its contract with the school is coming to an end. 

They said: “Service 88 is under contract to Budmouth College until July. Unfortunately, we were contacted at the end of March to say that funding had been cut significantly for this financial year and the service was no longer a viable option for them. 

“Many students can use still use First Wessex services 8 to travel to Budmouth College from across Weymouth in the new academic year in September. 

“We are happy to work with any school, college or other institution to provide bus services, but in most cases we are unable to provide a bespoke route without some additional financial support.”

Our relationship with Budmouth College is very good and we would be happy to work with them in the future should the opportunity arise.”