Cuts force pupils to walk to school on country roads

Released 07/09/2011

Cuts to school transport budgets have forced some children to walk to school on busy roads without pavements, particularly in rural areas

Children with two working parents may have no alternative and the risks are sure to increase when British summer time ends next month

The number of children walking to school has increased as a result of local authority service cuts – particularly those in rural areas which often have no pavements, posing a risk to pupil’s safety.

The Department for Education says the Department for Transport has protected the concessionary travel scheme in full, and has provided £10m extra funding for community transport in rural areas.

However, there are a number of children in rural England who have been now forced to walk up to 2.5 miles on roads without pavements to school as a result of the local authority cuts. Durham, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, Peterborough, Hampshire, and Devon have all reduced their budgets for concessionary fares and school bus services.

Children with two working parents may have no alternative and the risks are sure to increase when British summer time ends next month.

In a letter sent to Michael Gove, a coalition of groups including children's charities, teaching unions and poverty campaigners called on the education secretary to change the guidelines on what constitutes a safe route.

The letter stated: "There can surely be no point in standing by whilst savings made by local authorities increase costs to the taxpayer elsewhere due to possible hospital costs to an injured child, extra benefit payments because parents can't work, and lost tax receipts as parents can't continue in their job or have to choose not to go back to work."

A petition of 450 has been signed by residents of East Chiltington to prevent the changes to children’s transport in their area.

Sarah Osborne, Liberal Democrat councillor on Lewes district council and leader of the East Chiltington campaign, has stated that not everyone has access to a car to drive their children to school, that the headteacher doesn't want any more vehicles at its gates and that the school discourages cycling to school, and has no bike storage because the routes in are deemed too dangerous.

"Villages will become ghettoes for the old, the wealthy and the childless," she said. "It's much healthier for us all to have a diverse community."

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