PARENTS from Hook are opposing potentials cuts from Hampshire County Council (HCC), fearing an alternative put forward is unsafe.

The group, calling itself the Positive Action Group Against Transport Cuts, comprises of parents of students from the Hook and Odiham area who feel potential changes to school bus services will be detrimental to the area.

The main concern for the group is the bus service which takes students from Hook and the surrounding area to Robert May’s School, in Odiham.

As a part of HCC’s ‘Balancing The Budget’ bid, a free bus service which brings students to the school could become paid for, with the amount that parents are forced to pay out potentially being hundreds of pounds.

The ‘balancing the budget’ initiative sets out how HCC will make £140 million worth of savings to its current budget.

Samantha Vinten, from the group, said: “We started off as a small group of people on Facebook, who were concerned with what the council might be doing to the bus service. Now, there are nearly 400 members and people who have concerns about where this could be going.

“Robert May’s is the only school in the catchment area for a lot of students, and a large percentage don’t live in Odiham.

“As a result, a lot of people rely on the buses. Now, HCC is looking at implementing a safe walking route to the school.

“However, we have our doubts over their definition of ‘safe’ as it will be going over a very rural area, having to cross the M3 and go near the A287.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire County Council said: “The county council is looking to make improvements to the footpath between Hook and Robert May’s School, which would, as well as providing a new walking route for the community, provide a safe walking route to school.

“These proposals have been discussed with the parish councils and the school.

“The aim is to have the footpath ready for the new school year in September 2019.

“Free school transport will no longer be provided by the county council to children from Hook, aged between 11 and 16 who live within three miles of school - the statutory distance from the Department for Education’s guidelines.”

Plans seen at an Odiham Parish Council meeting on June 7 detail the route between Holt Lane in Hook to West Street, where Robert May’s School is.

An informal poll of residents in the area indicated that if there was no bus service available, then around 70 per cent would drive their children to school. It was calculated by the group that this could mean another 350 cars on the road at peak time in the morning.

Samantha added: “There is already congestion with the buses, and now, there could potentially be gridlock if hundreds of more cars were to be on the roads. While this would undoubtedly save overheads, at what cost would it be?”