CONCERNS over the number of children squeezed on to the Newport Bus have been raised following a council decision to provide secondary school pupils with free places on public services buses rather than a dedicated school bus.

The change was introduced by Monmouthshire County Council in September 2024 which it said would mean funds used for home to school transport would also support public transport available to all members of the public.

Laura Anne Jones, a Reform Member of the Senedd for Sir Fynwy Torfaen, accused the Labour-led council of putting cost before pupils as it attempted to tackle a school transport bill of £7 million a year.

According to Ms Jones there had been 51 pupils on board the number 60 bus, from Newport to Monmouth, and operated by Newport Bus when youngsters returned to school.

She said “many” pupils were standing on the bus from Usk on their way to Monmouth Comprehensive before “many more” got on at Raglan and other stops.

A spokesperson for Newport Bus said the service operated within its legal capacity and said: ” We operate route 60 under contract to Monmouthshire County Council and the vehicle operated is to the specifications required as part of the contract.

“The number of customers travelling did not exceed the legal limit of the vehicle. We monitor capacity across all our services to ensure we match resources to demand.”

When concerns were previously raised about the number of pupils travelling on the number 60 bus to Monmouth, after the council introduced its new policy of using public service buses in 2024, the council said it had issued bus passes to 29 pupils on the route.

At that time the councillor responsible said the average number of fare paying passengers was 20 meaning usually there were around 49 passengers on the bus.

Monmouthshire County Council was contacted for comment.