WORRIED parents are urging transport bosses to bring in an afternoon school service so their children are not “wandering the streets in the dark”.

Bolton-based pupils at Bury Church High School must rely on public services as their school bus does not run at the end of the day.

The 712 service that about 50 children from Stoneclough and Ringley catch at 7.40am to get directly to school each day does not run in the evenings.

Instead pupils must use the overcrowded half-hourly 512 service with older students from Bury College, as well as shoppers and workers leaving Bury.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said they do not have a spare vehicle to run a dedicated afternoon school service and insisted that the 512 from Bury Interchange is not “overloaded”.

They added that extend-ing the 712 service will form part of their end-of-year review.

Delia Cottam, aged 46, from Stoneclough, whose son William attends Bury Church, said: “We have spoken with the school and the police and they have been quite supportive. Now it is getting dark so early in the evenings, it is worrying that our children may be wandering through Bury with half an hour to spare.”

The parents of children in Year Seven and Eight are especially worried as they fear older pupils and students at Bury College will get on the service first.

They are also angered by the time of the 712 service in the morning. Ms Cottam added: “It is at 7.40am which means the kids are at school for just after 8am.

“If they are delayed getting the bus home they sometimes will not get back until 5pm, which is too long a day. You can’t help but worry about your children in this situation as you just never know who might be about. They are more vulnerable and could be targeted.”

A spokesperson for TfGM said: “We introduced the new 712 morning school bus service in September following a passenger survey carried out in response to reports of overcrowding on the 512 service morning journey.

“We are continuing to monitor passenger numbers on the 1603 departure from Bury Interchange, which is full but not overloaded.

“While we were able to provide this new morning 712 journey within existing vehicle resources, unfort-unately we do not have a spare vehicle to operate a dedicated afternoon school journey.”