Angry parents are set to report their council to the ombudsman over alleged failings to provide school transport.
The dispute has arisen following the move this summer of Dundee’s Harris Academy to a temporary site several miles away while its former buildings are knocked down and replaced.
Parents in the Carse of Gowrie whose children attend the school claim Perth and Kinross Council has failed to provide a proper bus service. Pupils either have to endure long journeys involving a change of bus, or their parents have to drive them to and from school.
Mandy Trickett, of Harris Academy’s parent council, said they had wanted to speak to council officials but had been denied a meeting.
“We believe this is against the Parental Involvement Act 2006, which says councils are supposed to engage with and consult parents,” she said.
Mrs Trickett contrasted the council’s attitude with that of its city counterpart.
“Dundee City Council has been open and flexible with parents and they have tried to get it right. Perth and Kinross Council have kept refusing. If what they are doing is right and just, why won’t they meet us?”
A complaint to the Scottish public services ombudsman is now on the cards.
One parent said a bus was taking pupils from Invergowrie to the school but children in other parts of the Carse were missing out.
“We live in Longforgan and we are entitled to absolutely nothing. We feel like our kids are being absolutely dumped on. It’s not our fault that the school has been moved.”
Another mother said she was having to drop off her daughter near the old Harris site in Perth Road, where she could get on one of the buses that serves the school’s West End catchment.
She said: “They should be treating the kids equally. Perth and Kinross Council have just shunted us from pillar to post nobody’s interested.”
The transport issue was discussed at the most recent meeting of the Harris parent council.
Mrs Trickett said she knew of one family who had been offered one pass for the Invergowrie bus by Perth and Kinross Council but they have two children at the school.
“They have no idea of the distress they are causing,” she added.
A Perth and Kinross Council spokeswoman said: “The council has been in ongoing correspondence with Mrs Trickett regarding school transport. We would wish to stress, however, that what is being suggested regarding this matter is not in fact the case. Prior to Harris Academy’s move, we transported nine pupils who were entitled to school transport to its Perth Road site. We now transport 87 pupils to the Lawton Road site.
“This is entirely in line with both our admissions policy and home-to-school transport policy, which are applied throughout the Perth and Kinross Council area and make it clear that pupils who do not attend their catchment school designated by Perth and Kinross Council are not entitled to receive transport to school.”
The spokeswoman added: “Perth and Kinross Council has never provided free home-to-school transport for mainstream pupils living in Inchture, Errol or Longforgan to attend Harris Academy in Dundee and these parents have always been required to arrange and pay for transporting their children to Harris Academy.”