Following a series of meetings and communications where top level Argyll and Bute officials pledged to work with the community and come up with a solution by August 1, an email was sent to the community council with just hours to spare.
The council's present arrangement is that its minibus will only take children as far as the ferry. They have to walk on to the vehicle ferry and at the other side they are expected to catch a public service bus to school at Easdale Primary.
Island representatives had been hopeful when, at a meeting on June 14, they were told the council was willing to work with them to try and find a solution that would be safer and work for both sides.
"We left that meeting hoping for open dialogue and to reach a solution by August 1 but we received no communication at all until 6pm last night," Luing Community Council Convener Innes MacQueen told this month's meeting at Cullipool Village Hall.
"Argyll and Bute have now offered for the community to use the minibus, using their council-contracted driver but only as far as the ferry then it would be up to us to find a driver of our own to take the minibus over on the ferry to school. The children would stay on the bus, but that's really not much of an improvement. It's a big expectation, it puts a huge burden on us. We could not expect someone to do that voluntarily, we'd have to find funding from somewhere to pay a driver willing to give up a couple of hours in the morning and in the afternoon so we are not a huge step forward," he added.
Argyll and Bute's email was vague, leaving the community council with more questions than answers, the meeting was told. The need for any voluntary drivers to be specially trained and to be security checked was also discussed, acknowledging that could take more time.
Community councillor and island parent Alison Young told the meeting: "We are all of the opinion that this is not good enough. It's highly unlikely we are going to get a door-to-door service from Argyll and Bute but they should be offering more than the minibus and driver to the ferry. We are not going to have a solution for the start of term."
A face-to-face meeting with Roads and Infrastructure chief Jim Smith is being arranged to move the issue on.
The proposal from Argyll and Bute is only for primary school children, not nursery age. There is currently £21,ooo in the council budget for Luing's school travel arrangement.
Luing resident and Save Our School campaigner Norman Bissell made a point that with all the money being saved by mothballing the island school, why could extra funds not be put in to making school journeys safer for the children.
The meeting heard Argyll and Bute had already explained the two funding pots are separate - education and transport.
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