WORRIED parents say they are concerned for their children's safety on buses taking them to school after low hanging tree branches smashed windows.

Parents speaking at a public meeting on school transport services on Monday said they were aware of five incidents of windows being broken on the top deck of double decker buses taking pupils to schools in High Wycombe.

Transport bosses were forced to change the service on some routes to two single decker buses after work to cut the trees back failed to take place.

A parent at Monday's meeting, held at Dr Challoner's High School in Little Chalfont, asked: "A route has gone to two single deckers today. Is that an admission double deckers are unsafe?"

Andrew Bluck of Amey, the company which operates the county's school transport service, said: "It's a recognition tree work hadn't been done in time. We've put in a planning request. Should we go down the route of double deckers down these roads, we can switch on the plans to make sure we have the capital to do the tree work.

"The work planned for today [Monday] on the trees wasn't done in time."

He added: "That's not good enough; it's unacceptable. There will be consequences for what's happened. That's why we've had two single decker buses until we know the trees have been done."

Another parent speaking at the meeting claimed there had been five incidents of windows being broken and said: "In one of them, a child I know was slightly injured."

Mr Bluck admitted: "There has been more than one formal complaint. We've had more than one window broken."

A parent at the meeting said: "My daughter came back and said it was dangerous", while another asked: "Will the council commit itself to managing the roads to an acceptable standard? There's no way I would let my girl come in on a bus with all those trees on each side."

Mike Appleyard, Buckinghamshire County Council's cabinet member for education, said: "I want to put in place a mechanism that enables proper security and proper safety to be ensured on those bus routes.

"I don't accept where we are at the moment by any means. The parents' needs to be absolutely secure, that's something I need to work through with you.

A concerned parent, who did not wish to be identified, sent photographs of windows that had been broken by branches to the Bucks Free Press.

They said: "There must be a line drawn when further cost cutting is actually putting our children at risk daily."