URGENT investigations are underway into the chaotic situation over school buses.

Parents and students are calling for council transport chiefs to sort out the situation now.

Fed-up pupils say every day is a battle to get to lessons because of late buses or vehicles not showing up at all.

School transport chiefs at County Hall in Dorchester are receiving several hundred complaints a day from irate parents about a catalogue of transport blunders.

They say it has affected around 10 per cent of school bus services and they are doing ‘everything possible’ to overcome the problems.

Dorset County Council changed its contractor to Blandford-based Damory Coaches over the summer as part of a programme of savings.

However, Damory said the council’s transport was at fault as the route briefs it issued were provided very late and were “ambiguous”.

Thomas Hardye student Sarah Brown, 13, and her friends have experienced problems getting to the Dorchester school from Crossways three days in the past week.

On two days the bus hadn’t arrived by 9am and on another occasion it was 15 minutes late.

Sarah’s mum Anne Brown, 45, said: “This is an absolute shambles. It’s ridiculous.

“One day they didn’t get picked up and another bus was sent out. You ring the transport office and you can’t talk to anybody.

“They won’t discuss anything over the phone. They just tell you to email. We are being completely ignored.”

An urgent review is being held into the crisis, which has seen Weymouth students trying to board full public buses while their school buses remain empty – resulting in chaos outside the school gates.

Many parents have bought commercial bus passes for their children because the cost of a concessionary seat has risen by £150 to £400 – making First bus passes the cheaper option.

Grandmother Janice Grubb said she didn’t wish to risk her granddaughter Shannon, 12, travelling on the public bus from Wyke Regis to Budmouth College because of overcrowding.

Year eight student Shannon used to catch the axed bus which went from Wyke Regis to Budmouth and then back to Wyke.

Mrs Grubb, 50, said: “Shannon didn’t get a place at All Saints School and has to travel to Budmouth.

“The buses are so busy that her great-granddad has been driving her to school.

“That bus route has been running since I was at school. No-one has thought this decision through.

“The safety of our school children is important.”

Dorset County Councillor Brian Ellis said the authority is holding an ‘urgent investigation’ into what has gone wrong.

He said: “They should have thought through some things and dealt with it before.

“It’s like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.”