An angry parent has slammed the county council after his daughters' bus route was cancelled without warning, leaving him scrambling to arrange taxis to get them to school.
Duncan McGregor's two daughters are due to start Year 7 and 8 at Hartismere School in Eye in September.
However, after finding out their bus route had been cancelled through social media, the father, of Stradbroke, is now desperately trying to find other means of transport.
"There are a number of people who are being left out in the cold here," he said.
"I've been told my daughters have a walkable route to school, but it's along a 60mph road used by HGVs and has no pavement or street lighting."
With the 319 route axed, students will now have to take the 318, which misses out Stradbroke and, according to Mr McGregor, will not have enough places.
"It just won't have enough seats," he said.
"I'm being left trying to arrange car shares or taxis for my children. I suspect it's a very similar story for everyone else.
"And the worst part is that, had it not been for other parents telling me via Facebook and Nextdoor, I would have packed them off to catch the bus on their first day of school in September."
Mr McGregor, also the leader of Denham Parish Council, has slammed Suffolk County Council, saying it is not doing enough to save bus routes.
"The county council has declared a climate emergency, but at the same time they're defunding buses and cutting routes," he added.
"That's just going to amount to more time spent in cars trying to get our children to school.
"Eye town centre is already heavily congested with HGVs and cars. This is just going to make it worse.
"It's unacceptable."
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A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: "The 319 service is a commercially run bus route and the operator took a decision to stop running it because there were not enough passengers using it to make it viable.
"This was an operator decision, not the county council's."
The spokesman added: "We fully understand that it is frustrating for families when there are changes to bus services, but our duty is to transport only children who are eligible for publicly funded school transport.
"We have been able to move eligible pupils from the 319 onto the 318 service."
The 319 bus route was provided by independent operator Fareline Bus & Coach Services, run by owner Jeff Morss.
Mr Morss confirmed that the route to Hartismere School was previously under contract to Suffolk County Council, but this finished at the end of the school year in July.
"It's not viable for me to run it as a commercial bus service at the moment," Mr Morss said.
"But I've been contacted by a few people and if I can get interest from at least 20, I'll definitely look into running it again."
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Father-of-two Mr McGregor also worries for the independence which will be taken away from children if they are no longer able to take the bus to school.
"My youngest is just starting high school and she's always been keen on getting her bus ticket," he said.
"It's part of growing up and gaining their independence. There's a degree of socialisation and learning life skills there too.
"Surely, spending money on getting our children to school is money well spent."
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