A senior councillor has apologised after Warwickshire County Council's school transport system "simply didn't cope" at the start of the new academic year.

The county acknowledged delays in issuing bus passes and delivering school transport services in an announcement on September 4, stating staff were "working diligently" on solutions. 

Cllr Kam Kaur, the county's portfolio holder for education, fielded a question on the matter in the absence of cabinet colleague Cllr Jan Matecki, who looks after transport and planning.

She cited the systemic issue alongside higher than usual demand and the volume of late applications for home to school transport.

Those factors combined to prompt a ripple effect of busier phone lines, less availability for children whose parents pay for the spare seats on such transport and more appeals for the council's team to deal with. 

She added that "the majority of the issues have been dealt with" but committed to reviewing the ability of the system to cope in future years. 

The query came from Cllr Jerry Roodhouse who wanted to know what had caused the delay, how many families had been affected, whether there was still a backlog and if so, how long they would be waiting.

Cllr Kaur replied: "I am sorry to those families who have been impacted, particularly the young people and more so the year seven (pupils), many of whom are going to be using the buses for the first time. It must have been quite awful for them.

"The reason is two-fold. The system quite simply didn't cope, plus high demand.

"It is not unusual for there to be a spike in demand for the home-to-school service at this time of year.

"We receive calls and emails from parents and operators as the new network beds in at the start of the new academic year but this year, we have seen a much higher rate of applications for transport come in after the May deadline with up to 50 per cent of key stage applications coming in late.

"That left less time to organise an efficient network to meet the needs of those pupils that require it. 

"Because of the network changes to meet the needs of a growing number of pupils who are eligible for transport, there have been fewer paid-for seats which has added further to the demand and the number of calls received.

"In addition to this, we have seen an increase in appeals, as you would expect.

"We recognise there has been an issue with bus passes, leading to more than 300 calls and emails. The main reason for this delay has been our inability to update timetables for parents on the website.

"We feel the majority of the issues have been dealt with. There are still a few individuals that the team is working with to try to resolve the system.

"Going forward, we will be looking at the capabilities of the system and working with parents in terms of better communications."

On September 4, families who applied before the deadline were encouraged to email [email protected] with any problems for a priority response but those who missed the cut were warned there would be delays and that "applications are being reviewed in the order they were received".