Youngsters at a Lanarkshire primary school have continually missed class time this year - because their school bus has been late in picking them up.
Pupils travelling to St Charles Primary School in Cambuslang are supposed to be picked up from a bus stop in Drumsagard at 8.30am.
The bus is then scheduled to pick up more kids from a second stop several minutes later, before arriving at the school in time for classes starting at 9am.
However fed-up parents say that the service, which caters for around 40 kids, is continually late and that the pupils regularly don't arrive until well after 9am.
In one instance last week, the bus hadn't even arrived by 9am, leaving the children waiting around for more than 30 minutes.
South Lanarkshire Council has confirmed to Lanarkshire Live that it has raised concerns with bus operator SPT over the number of incidents.
Alan Dunsmuir has a son at St Charles and said the problems have reached ridiculous levels in recent months.
He told Lanarkshire Live: "My son was on the bus from 2017 until 2019 and back then it left at 8.35am. This was perfect timing for children and working parents.
"Then Covid happened and once the bus started up again the arrival time was no earlier than 8.40am. It's now regularly 8.50 now, and one one day last week it wasn't there until after 9 o'clock.
"The problem is the council and SPT informed parents at the start of the school year that the arrival time is 8.30am, so all the kids still arrive at that time for fear of missing the bus. Then they have to stand in the rain or freezing cold waiting on a bus that no-one really knows when it will arrive."
Mr Dunsmuir said a knock-on effect of the uncertainty is more parents are now driving their kids to school, creating further congestion, while other youngsters get fed up waiting and walk to school.
He said: "Despite numerous complaints about the service nothing is changing. The reply is simply that the company has been warned but it is has reached breaking point, where multiple times per week the children are late for school."
Cambuslang East councillor Katy Loudon confirmed that she had been made aware of the problem.
She stated: " It clearly isn’t an acceptable situation at all, because it’s so important that children can feel settled and ready at the start of the day, without worrying about their bus being late. I’ve raised it with Education, and I’m currently waiting for a response."
An SPT spokesperson said: SPT is aware of the issues raised and is working with the operator and South Lanarkshire Council to resolve these."
A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council added: "We are aware of the issues parents have been experiencing with the bus contractor for St Charles Primary school and we have asked Strathclyde Partnership for Transport as our agents to investigate this matter and remind the contractor of the conditions and timing of this contract.”
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