A MUM is considering changing her daughter’s school after a bus route was axed in Southend, leaving her concerned about the school run.

Dawn Butler, whose seven-year-old daughter attends Hamstel Junior School in Southend, previously relied on the number 26 to bus to get her child to school from their Westcliff home.

As part of a shake up of First Bus routes across south Essex, the number 26 from Hadleigh to Southend is being axed.

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The firm says it is in response to low-numbers using buses compared to before the pandemic.

However, Mrs Butler, who asked to keep her child anonymous, fears there will be a huge impact.

She fears it will be impossible for her to work if her child has to find another way to get to school.

She said: “There are loads of issues with it as I live in Westcliff and my daughter goes to school at Hamstel, so we use the 26 to get my daughter to and home from school.

“But I also use the 26 for work as one of my clients lives on the route.

“I am annoyed because it is a constant thing, it used to be the 27, which was fine, then they stopped that and went to the 26, and as it is there is no Sunday service, and now they are stopping the 26.

“It is with a weeks’ notice too and I just don’t understand it.

“I am going to try and change my daughter’s school now; it is getting to the point where these changes mean I am having to think about changing her school, that is crazy.

“It is causing my so many issues, it is a nightmare, we rely on this bus and this service.”

First Bus bosses have repeatedly pointed to changing trends in travel to justify the move.

They stated: “We are noticing that through flexible working arrangements in workplaces people are travelling less and at different times of the day compared to previous morning and afternoon peak travel.

“We are starting to see more people travelling by bus on some routes across our bus network, but numbers are still low compared to pre-covid.”