{"id":375561,"date":"2025-08-26T18:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/375561\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:07:16","slug":"the-bee-network-change-that-a-quarter-of-greater-manchester-mps-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/375561\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bee Network change that a quarter of Greater Manchester MPs want"},"content":{"rendered":"

It could affect thousandsBee Network buses are under the mayor’s control(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A quarter of Greater Manchester MPs have called on Andy Burnham to make a change to the Bee Network which could affect thousands.<\/p>\n

Graham Stringer is the latest MP to call on the mayor to introduce a new bus pass.<\/p>\n

The veteran Labour<\/a> politician has backed a Manchester Evening News’ campaign to secure a free bus pass for homeless children in temporary accommodation more than a 30 minutes\u2019 walk from school.<\/p>\n

\"\"School transport campaign<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester\u2019s homeless parents face an impossible choice: Try and find the money to keep their children in the classroom, or move schools.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a choice we believe no parent should make.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we call on Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, to implement a free bus pass for children in temporary accommodation more than a 30-minute walk from their original school.<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester\u2019s homeless families are often placed in temporary accommodation far from home, so their children go from walking to school to being miles away.<\/p>\n

Council rules say children are only eligible for free transport if they are more than two miles from school, and there\u2019s no \u2018suitable school\u2019 nearer. But it\u2019s almost-impossible to be further than three miles from a school in the city.<\/p>\n

That presents homeless parents a difficult choice: Pay for buses they previously didn\u2019t need to afford, or move their children to a different school, if places are available.<\/p>\n

Mr Stringer \u2014 who has represented parts of north Manchester, Salford<\/a>, and Rochdale<\/a>, for 28 years \u2014 has now publicly supported the M.E.N. campaign to remove this dilemma.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt is vital that children keep in contact with their school and friends when they have been moved into temporary accommodation, a free bus pass would be an enormous help in ensuring that these vital contacts are maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Middleton South(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

The Labour man is the seventh Greater Manchester MP to make the call, meaning just over a quarter of the region\u2019s 27 MPs have backed the campaign.<\/p>\n

Others include Labour\u2019s Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford), Christian Wakeford (Bury<\/a> South), Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton<\/a> South and Walkden<\/a>), and Afzal Khan (Manchester Rusholme<\/a>). Two Liberal Democrats<\/a> have also lent their support: Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove<\/a>) and Tom Morrison (Cheadle<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Previously, a mayoral spokesperson said: \u201cWe are doing a lot to make travel easier and more affordable for everyone in Greater Manchester, including children and young adults. That includes \u00a31 single bus fares, free travel for 16-18-year-olds, an extension of free travel for care leavers and, from next month, half price bus travel for 18-21-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransport for Greater Manchester is currently undertaking a broader review of concessions, considering all the requests for support that we get from a range of groups across the city-region, and the mayor has asked them to ensure this is included.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"School transport campaign<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester\u2019s homeless parents face an impossible choice: Try and find the money to keep their children in the classroom, or move schools.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a choice we believe no parent should make.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we call on Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, to implement a free bus pass for children in temporary accommodation more than a 30-minute walk from their original school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could affect thousandsBee Network buses are under the mayor’s control(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News) A quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[131227,15333,748,393,131226,4884,6332,2465,8825,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-375561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-andy-burnham-mp","9":"tag-bee-network","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-graham-stringer-mp","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-homelessness","15":"tag-manchester","16":"tag-transport-for-greater-manchester","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115096404317194174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}