The local council has decided to increase the walking distance to school from two miles to three miles before free transport is provided.
Ok, fair enough, they have to save money etc but the area that some of the children live in is going to cause a problem with walking to school and is quite frankly, dangerous.
The council are arguing that the route they have set out (highlighted in black) is under the three mile limit (just) and that children can walk that way. Kids being kids though are going to take the shorter route (highlighted in red) which is understandable, but the shorter route means going down a narrow lane with no pavements.
Oh, and just to add, these will be 11yr old kids this year as kids already on the route and going to the school will still be able to go on the bus. I’m fortunate in that as I have a daughter in the school already, my son becomes eligible for the bus too, meanwhile his butty will have to walk it.
Parents have contacted the council and the local MP but it’s all falling on deaf ears.
Ridiculous decision by the council and I think only an accident is going to change things.
Is the footpath through the farmland a viable alternative to using Bryn Celyn?
Edit: I should add that I hope that the OP and others can get the Council's decision overturned so that neither the footpath nor Bryn Celyn are likely walking routes for the kids.
Last edited by PickleB; 12th July 2022 at 10:52.
Thats absolutely ridiculous.Originally Posted by jaytip
The local council has decided to increase the walking distance to school from two miles to three miles before free transport is provided.
Ok, fair enough, they have to save money etc but the area that some of the children live in is going to cause a problem with walking to school and is quite frankly, dangerous.
The council are arguing that the route they have set out (highlighted in black) is under the three mile limit (just) and that children can walk that way. Kids being kids though are going to take the shorter route (highlighted in red) which is understandable, but the shorter route means going down a narrow lane with no pavements.
Oh, and just to add, these will be 11yr old kids this year as kids already on the route and going to the school will still be able to go on the bus. I’m fortunate in that as I have a daughter in the school already, my son becomes eligible for the bus too, meanwhile his butty will have to walk it.
Parents have contacted the council and the local MP but it’s all falling on deaf ears.
Ridiculous decision by the council and I think only an accident is going to change things.
I'd visit your MP's surgery, explain the precise dangers (and photographs like that are perfect) and ask them to confirm that they are comfortable with that. My experience of MPs in this sort of situation is that they really don't like to leave themselves exposed like that and so will tend to be supportive as the optics would be so bad for them if there were an accident. A series of letters asking for an explicit reply is not a bad way to go either.
In the dry it could be ok, but when it’s wet it’s likely to be pretty muddy.Is the footpath through the farmland a viable alternative to using Bryn Celyn?
Edit: I should add that I hope that the OP and others can get the Council's decision overturned so that neither the footpath nor Bryn Celyn are likely walking routes for the kids.
My first idea was: ‘so many children here are walking/biking to school’. In fact, we don’t have schoolbus transport!
But the I saw the pics of the roads; and they remind me of the ones I drove on when I was in Devon a few yrs back.
These roads are scary as h@ll. Kids can’t walk or cycle those roads during any time of the year. Too much vegatation in Spring, Summer, early Autumn. Wet roads (braking distance!!!) later in the year. And let’s talk dark roads during the winter months.
I see your point and I would do anything -like you- to have this changed back.
Parents have already approached the local MP, who ironically lives behind me so he knows how dangerous that lane is, but he doesn’t seem to be showing much interest in helping them out.
It’s incredibly frustrating as there are loads of empty seats on the bus and it’s doing the route anyway.
Meanwhile the council are happy to fork out £650 every week for one child to travel from Another county to Bridgend for school. I know, because I’ve been taking him. Ok, the kid is in foster care, but you’d think they would try and house him in a better location closer to the school. I digress, but the point I’m trying to make is that they say they have no funds
Last edited by jaytip; 12th July 2022 at 12:55.
"Despite opposition from parents and politicians, Fife Council decided in 2019 that crossing a busy slip road to the M90 motorway was a safe way for children to get to and from the school."
They just don't give a monkeys. Thankfully now in Scotland all schoolkids get free bus travel, but for a couple of years it was OK for them to cross a motorway slip road.
Maybe get a parent or member of school staff to monitor the junction and ensure kids go the correct way
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Your last comment on the cost of travel for a child in foster care seems mildly inappropriate on a public forum, given presumably anybody at that school could join the dots on who you're talking about. Would politely suggest you remove that.
That should be the school or council's responsibility IMO
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
I’ve edited it, but I’m not removing it as it highlights the absurd notion that the council have increased the walking distance to try and save money.
Here is another example. I’m currently sat in a supermarket car park awaiting the return journey (£100 round trip) that a kid does every week to ride a motorcross bike.
The funds are there when they need to be there.
Understand free transport has been removed, can you not pay to get a place on the bus?
Alternatively, through the estate 2/3 up and then short footpath to rejoin council route will save ~third distance.
And if the cut-off was still 2 miles? Some children still might take a more dangerous but shorter route - the council can't win. Ultimately down to parents as to which to which route their kids take.
Surprised that many would walk even a mile TBH - round here would think most would be dropped by parents.
Last edited by Kingstepper; 12th July 2022 at 13:14.
Can you clarify on the map where you mean please?
If the cut off was 2 miles, it wouldn’t be an issue as there are roads with pavements within that two mile radius except for one small village.
The problem arises purely because of our location.
Can you also FOI any impact assessments done on the change of policy?
Cwrt Coed Parc - looks like there’s a route through there.
Mentioned the 2 miles in general terms, not just for this specific case.
Is there public transport or a paid-for bus option?
This.
And this.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Another option. As you feel it reasonable for a fostered kid to be torn from his foster home and put with a new nearer family, or expect the whole family to uproot and move, perhaps you could move nearer the school, the other side of the narrow lane, or move a bit further away, just over the 3 mile limit, and get the free bus again
Hold your horses. The kid had only just been put with this foster family. I simply questioned why they would place him with a foster family so far away from his school/family.
Oh, and my kids aren’t impacted by this, it’s other kids from the area we live in. It doesn’t make it less fair though.
Parents have asked for this but the council have refused it.
No buses run in the area. Council withdrew subsidies a few years ago and the bus service stopped a short time later.
There is a public footpath there but it’s pretty overgrown.
Why don’t they just cycle the black route?
Out of sight, without their parents' eyes, they will cycle the red route.
It looks like you have to do like the parents here (rural area where I live) do: taking them to school and picking them up yourself. We don't have any form of public transportation for school kids. I wish we had! Bringing them around 8:30AM is mostly not a problem. Picking them up during the afternoon is more troublesome for most parents here. Still they manage.
I'm not far away and agree this is unacceptable.
You will probably have more local with your local councillor than MP/MS although both make a huge point of being local and accessible
I would emphasise the child safety and child protection side of the argument as BCBC must be close to going into special measures around these issues.
I may be wrong but jaytip's post was not about himself. It was about a council's decision to remove free school transport from families that benefitted from it until then, to save money.
We don't know how many children benefitted from the service. We don't know what the annual cost was. What we do know is that the bus service was stopped altogether, so it's not like they might just have to pay for it from now on, it's just not there anymore.
That in itself may mean that the number of children involved was too small to make it viable even if they were paying passenger, or that the families living in this estate would not be able to afford the daily fare anyway.
In any case it also means that the families will have to choose between taking a dangerous, but shorter route to take their children to school, or a longer but safer one.
Lobbying the MP (involving the local media) while hounding the council for their assessment impact is probably the way to go.
In the mean time, the estate should get organised and set up a "walking bus", with all children wearing high vis and a few adult parents taking turns to take them to school every day. It still represents about 8 miles for the adults on the day. We did this in our village but the distance was much shorter.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Mostly right SJ. It’s not my kids that are affected, but their friends from the same area.
What makes this the more frustrating is that the bus continues to run on this route but new starters to the comp who don’t have older siblings on the bus can’t use it. My daughter tells me there is plenty of room on it.
Parents have even asked if they can pay for a seat on the bus but the council are saying no.
Last edited by jaytip; 13th July 2022 at 11:01.
Clearly they want to stop running the bus altogether.
Eventually the existing passengers will leave the school, and then they can stop it. So they won't allow new passengers to join.
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Yep, certainly looks that way.
Hello from a fellow Welsh member.The local council has decided to increase the walking distance to school from two miles to three miles before free transport is provided.
Ok, fair enough, they have to save money etc but the area that some of the children live in is going to cause a problem with walking to school and is quite frankly, dangerous.
The council are arguing that the route they have set out (highlighted in black) is under the three mile limit (just) and that children can walk that way. Kids being kids though are going to take the shorter route (highlighted in red) which is understandable, but the shorter route means going down a narrow lane with no pavements.
Oh, and just to add, these will be 11yr old kids this year as kids already on the route and going to the school will still be able to go on the bus. I’m fortunate in that as I have a daughter in the school already, my son becomes eligible for the bus too, meanwhile his butty will have to walk it.
Parents have contacted the council and the local MP but it’s all falling on deaf ears.
Ridiculous decision by the council and I think only an accident is going to change things.
I feel your pain. We went through something similar years ago, the council were reducing transport, closing a school and introducing a supposed 'safe route'. It absolutely was not safe, much of the route was along narrow roads with no pavements and people now seem to drive like absolute knobs. The irony is that the people driving like knobs are typically ferrying their kids to school.
They eventually accepted that one of the proposed routes was not safe and provided a shuttle bus service. The community got together, involved local MPs, local press etc. It was ludicrous that the route was proposed in the first place!!
Good luck and make some noise would be my recommendation, especially given the WG are looking to impose 20mph speed limits in all towns and built up areas on the basis of improving road safety.
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