A DAD fears his daughter and almost 30 other children could be at risk after a bus service was axed.
The dad, of Links View, said the 496 service which took his 11-year-old daughter and other children to Darton College from Staincross had ‘disappeared’ with no warning.
He's so concerned that he does not want to be named - because he fears his daughter could be at risk from strangers if they get to know she is walking to and from school, especially as the nights draw in.
"I got a call from her on Monday last week on her mobile and she said the bus didn't turn up," he said.
"It turned out there were 27 kids down there at the bus stop and they had just been left at the side of the road."
His wife went to the bus stop in her car, picked up as many of them as she could and took them to college.
In the meantime, the dad began making frantic phone calls to try to find out what had happened to the 496 bus run by Tates Travel.
He said: "I talked to just about everyone. Darton College were very concerned, our councillor Roy Miller and the local education authority who told me they don’t have to supply school buses because we live under a three-mile range."
The family was told that children could ‘walk down the hill’ to near the old California pub on Sackup Lane where they could catch another service - the 444 - but when they tried that the next day, the bus drove straight past.
The dad added: "My daughter would struggle to do that anyway because she has asthma."
Graham Mallinson, of Tates Travel, said the 496 was withdrawn due to low passenger numbers. "We did give 56 days' legal notice and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport received a copy of the cancellation notice but it appears they failed to convey that to the school," he said.
