The Otago Regional Council has stepped in to try to save soon-to-be-axed Dunedin school bus services - until the end of the year.
The councillors also agreed to provide unspecified funding from the council's transport reserve, should this be needed to help continue the service when the fourth school term starts in about two and a-half weeks.
The council and the Ministry of Education had earlier said they were working together, after Go Bus school route cancellations, to ensure there were suitable transport options for affected pupils.
Council chief executive Peter Bodeker said the council would be speaking to government agencies to try to negotiate a positive outcome, to provide a continued fourth term service, when the recently announced cuts were due to take effect.
Worries have included the loss of the Otago Peninsula school service.
The council had also signalled it did not plan to continue funding for the affected school bus services beyond this year, Mr Bodeker said yesterday.
The meeting had also heard Ritchies could be a possible new operator of the bus services, but much more discussion and negotiation would be needed.
In hard-hitting presentations at a public forum yesterday morning before the main council meeting, Tahuna Intermediate School principal Tony Hunter, Bayfield High School principal Judith Forbes, Dunedin North Intermediate principal Heidi Hayward, Otago Peninsula Community Board chairman Paul Pope and parent Kjesten Nilsson outlined a harrowing series of concerns.
These included worries about traffic safety and the wellbeing of young rural school pupils in some cases being expected to start their travel about 7am, to walk unescorted for 1.6km to one school, and having to cross busy city streets when unfamiliar with fast-moving urban traffic.
Some pupils with disabilities also faced being excluded from school buses where they had previously gained valuable social contact with other pupils.
Regional councillors also considered a report, prepared by council manager support services Gerard Collings, which said there had been a ''strong community backlash'' to the Go Bus announcement.
The council had been told that the school bus commercial services had been run at a ''considerable loss'' for some time, and it is understood the losses may have amounted to about $70,000 a year.
A strong critic of the bus cuts, Mr Pope later said he he was ''cautiously optimistic'' that when the fourth school term began, buses would still be available to bring pupils safely to school.
The public forum had been ''very positive- everyone had the chance to speak''.
He was ''very pleased and really proud'' that about 20 affected parents, as well as some teachers and three principals had attended the forum.
