SCHOOL transport is being placed under the microscope in Argyll and Bute after the cost of the service rocketed by £876,000.

A report has revealed the increase, thought to be around 40 per cent, after tendering exercises for pupil transport in Islay, Helensburgh and Lomond, Mull and Mid Argyll.

External consultants will now be invited to consider four options, which include reducing contract costs or bringing the operation in house.

A hybrid in-house and contracted service, and approaching the Scottish Government for funding, are the other options on the table. The report does not identify a recommended option.

The matter will be discussed by Argyll and Bute Council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee at its meeting on Thursday, September 12.

Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said: “Argyll and Bute Council are legally obliged to provide statutory school transport, it is notable that public transport services are not a statutory function.

“The internal team have combined school transport services with public transport to provide more local registered services, this has been exhausted and there is no further scope to increase the changes.

“A local bus network is operated on the back of school transport journeys. There is a limited commercial bus network (Citylink services between Glasgow and Oban or Campbeltown and mostly seasonal commercial journeys on Mull and Bute); most of the bus network is subsidised or financially supported by Argyll and Bute Council.

“The cost for each of the combined school and local bus serviced contracts is split, with 80 per cent being allocated against the external school transport budget, and 20 per cent against the local bus service budget.

“Whilst this is an arbitrary split for budget coding purposes, it does broadly illustrate the point that the majority of the contract cost goes towards the procurement of the bus and provision of the driver, and all the back-office and management support, depot costs etc. that are included when providing a vehicle and a driver.

“To add further journeys or destinations involves only an additional amount to cover drivers wages and the additional fuel consumed.

“This does make it challenging to filter out costs by reducing the local service element as this will not necessarily reduce the contract cost significantly.

“The other factor to bear in mind, is the need to offer a driving shift that delivers a reasonable number of hours per day worked.

“Any operator would likely struggle to attract and retain sufficient drivers to operate purely school transport contracts for an hour or so in the morning and afternoon, for 190 days a year.”

Ms Flanagan added: “Recent tender exercises have resulted in significantly increased costs for contracts, an increase of £876,000 which is not budgeted for at present.

“This is due to the impact of driver wage increases, parts costs, insurance costs, and an increase in fuel costs, the maintenance requirements of modern DDA complaint vehicles, localised recruitment issues, the cost of contracts has increased by around 40 per cent.

“Nationally, increases are higher than this, and in some cases double the original contract value is not unrealistic.

“With the cost of these services increasing significantly, officers are considering future service delivery and a number of options have been suggested that could be considered.

“A fuller options appraisal will be undertaken and this will require to be carried out by an independent external consultant.”