MILES Butler, the county council’s director of environment, apologised for the ‘frustration and inconvenience’ caused to children and parents.

He said: “We have been experiencing problems with certain school bus services operated by our main contractor Damory.

“Buses have failed to pick up children from specific stops and, in some cases, either run very late or not at all.

“We have received hundreds of calls from parents who are understandably very concerned for their children’s well-being.

“We are doing everything possible to work with our contractors to overcome these problems and help get children safely to and from school.

“This includes using our own fleet and drivers to support Damory by covering certain stops and routes and, where necessary, bringing in other contractors to provide support.”

A county council spokesman said it is too early in the school term to provide an exact figure on the take-up of concessionary places for school buses.

She added: “All the places have been allocated, but some families have chosen to make other arrangements and this frees up seats for people on the waiting list. We are also processing a high number of late applications.”

The spokeswoman said that in the vast majority of cases, school buses offer a cheaper deal than public bus services.

She added: “However, it appears that a number of parents of All Saints pupils are choosing to use public bus services instead of our home-to-school contracted coaches.

“Parents are well within their rights to explore alternative travel with other public transport providers to try and find a better deal. We will monitor this situation as the term continues. If there is not a need for the two buses, we may merge the two.”

A spokeswoman from First said the company is ‘monitoring the situation closely’.

She added: “First has been working with local schools over the summer trying to find solutions to this problem.

“We have suggested alternatives for home-to-school transport including getting schools to work with each other to pay for contracted services for home to school transport for their students, with parents chipping in towards the cost.

“As yet these offers have not been taken up, but they remain on the table should the schools wish to discuss this with us.”