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Secretary for Transport:- It would of course not be suitable for
the se vehicles to stop at urban clearways as this would certainly
be dangerous. The only answer is to ensure that the schools themselves
whenever possible has an area off-street for the vans to go. As for
the other possibilities the only answer is to ensure that there are
side streets where the vans can stop safely.
Mr. Martin Lee:- Sir, from one of the
answers from the Secretary
for Transport it is apparent that 30 per cent of the operators of
these vans do not follow the guideline requiring someone to supervise
Is there any reason then why this
young children while travelling.
should not be obligatory by law?
Secretary for Transport:- Mr. Lee is quite right, this is not a legal
requirement although I believe the voluntary requirement has been
followed increasingly, as I said, over 75 per cent, and the number is
arising. Many of these vans have only seven or 14 seats and the economics
of them are such if they were required to pay for a full-time supervisor,
it might put them out of business and I'll try to assure this Council
that this present system is working well and I do not want to take the
risk of upsetting it.