Victory for Campaigners: A Step Forward on School Transport - But Not the Full Journey
After years of tireless campaigning by families, schools, and community groups, we’re finally seeing long-overdue changes to school transport options in East Brighton.
This week, we welcomed news of a new bus service that will connect Whitehawk with Brighton’s BACA School, something we and many others have been calling for since as far back as 2020.
While the new route may not reach the top of the Whitehawk estate (we’re still awaiting full route details), it will significantly cut down journey times, sparing students the need to travel via the city centre. It’s a real improvement, and one that will make life easier for many young people.
We also welcome the new routes planned from Whitehawk to Dorothy Stringer and Varndean, which will support local students travelling to those schools. These services are launching just in time for the young people who benefited from our 2024 policy change win, which gave priority to children on Free School Meals when applying to any school in the city.
But while we welcome this progress, it’s important to be clear: this is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.
Five Years Too Late for Some
We’ve been campaigning for almost five years to secure safe, direct, and affordable routes to school, and in that time, a child could have started and finished secondary school without ever benefiting from the changes now being introduced.
That timeline matters. It exposes the gap between what communities need and how long it takes institutions to respond. When it comes to basics like getting children to school safely, that delay is not just frustrating, it's unjust.
This must not be the norm. The time between a community identifying a clear need and that need being met must shrink. Local authorities, transport providers, and national government need to understand not just what’s needed, but what’s getting in the way of delivering it. Without that, we risk waiting another five years for the next vital improvement.
A Win Built on Collective Pressure
This shift didn’t happen by accident. It happened because local families, youth groups, schools, and campaigners worked together to raise their voices, persistently and collectively for years. It shows that when communities organise and keep up the pressure, change is possible.
We also want to acknowledge the role that the new Labour-led administration appears to have played in pushing for action. Unlike previous administrations, they’ve made school transport access an explicit political priority.
We’re not alone in this. Groups like Citizens UK, BACA School, the Youth Council, local councillors, and many others have all added weight to this issue. It’s taken a collective effort over several years to get here.
But Major Challenges Remain
While a direct route to BACA is a positive change, many families are still struggling with transport affordability. In conversations with local parents and carers, we’ve consistently heard that the cost of getting to school is a real barrier. A safe and direct journey means little if it’s priced out of reach.
A Call To Make Things Even Better - Tell Us What’s Happening Where You Are
We're currently gathering more information through our transport survey, and we want to hear from as many people as possible.
If you haven’t filled it in yet, please take a few minutes to do so, your voice helps shape what happens next.
Your insights help us identify the gaps, push for improvements, and build a stronger case when meeting with decision-makers.
What’s Next?
We’re waiting on final details about the new bus service, including exact timings and route stops. Once we know more, we’ll share it, and we’ll keep the pressure on to ensure this isn’t treated as a “job done” moment.
In the meantime, we’re calling on local leaders and national government alike: listen to what communities have been saying for years. Every child deserves a fair and affordable route to school, not one that takes five years to deliver or costs more than families can afford.
