One Mother from Sevenoaks is now considering other options as she says the reliability of the service doesn't justify the 22% increase, whilst the council says it's to combat inflationary pressures.
00:00 School buses are a lifeline for nearly 14,000 pupils across Kent every day.
00:07 But for their parents, anger at the cost of the travel saver card is set to increase by more than 20% to £550 for the next academic year.
00:17 In rural communities, the bus is often the only option and there are calls for greater reliability with fares potentially going up.
00:26 We are in a fortunate position where I've changed jobs, I now work from home so I can be on hand if necessary.
00:32 My partner is self-employed, if he has to do the school run, it costs him, he's going to get to work late.
00:38 And the attitude is kind of, oh well, and it carries on regardless.
00:44 So I think they need to be a bit more transparent on why they're making those increases and if the service is going to improve as a result of those increases.
00:54 The cost of buying Kent County Council subsidised bus passes increases most years.
01:00 Ten years ago in 2014, parents would be paying £200 for the equivalent travel saver card.
01:06 Now using the Bank of England's inflation tracker, we can see that would cost in today's money £266.
01:15 That's more than half of what Kent County Council are proposing on charging parents for the next academic year.
01:23 The authority told us financial pressures to maintain statutory services means the cost of the pass needs to increase
01:30 so that they can continue to provide the scheme within current subsidy levels.
01:34 But opposition councillors say they should have been prepared for operational increases.
01:39 Anything like that should have already been built into those sort of increases.
01:43 Another £100 on top of what people have had to suffer in the last few years really is too much.
01:48 And I don't think it's fair because as I say, people are running out of choices.
01:54 And when you put people into a corner like that, you cause a lot of desperation, a lot of hardship in some cases.
02:01 The extent our councils go with school travel varies as to where you live.
02:06 Most in the south east don't subsidise services.
02:10 Whereas in London, under-16s can travel for free on buses.
02:15 So the overall cost is £5 million to Kent County Council and taxpayers.
02:21 That's the subsidy we extend and the costing of it is set by the prices that the bus companies charge.
02:29 Kent County Council doesn't brand any buses. We are subsidising the use of buses by people.
02:34 We also give direct substitutes to the bus companies.
02:37 Very unusual for a county council to do that. Very few do it.
02:41 The potential increase will be discussed by the Transport Committee next week before going to a vote by KCC's cabinet.
