School walk fears (From Penarth Times)

School walk fears

PARENTS of pupils at a Penarth comprehensive have voiced their fears for the safety of their children who face a walk to school through isolated, muddy fields after the Vale council decided to withdraw free transport for children in the Michaelston-le-Pit area.

Vale AM Jane Hutt last week joined parents and their children from Michaelston-le-Pit to try out a newly proposed'safe route to school' from the village.

Former Welsh Assembly Government minister Jane Hutt said: "This took them down the lane into a muddy patch at the entrance of a field (Salmon Leaps Walk).

"The children are then expected to walk along a track across the fields to St Peter's Church and thence to St Cyres School in Dinas Powys, Penarth and Murch Junior.

"I am concerned by a recent decision by the Vale Council, notified to the parents last week, to cease providing free school transport, with the advice that children should walk across these fields to Dinas Powys.

"The school day at St Cyres starts at 8.30am and I am very concerned about the safety of this proposed route across the fields, at any time of the year, but particularly in the dark winter months. I understand that free school transport has been provided for over 30 years.

"I am asking the Vale Council to re-instate the free school transport for children in this community."

A spokesman for the Vale Council said: "The Vale of Glamorgan Council commissioned independent assessments on 10 local walking routes to school after claims from parents that they were unsafe. The results of the assessment showed that these two routes are unsafe in accordance with the Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association Guidelines on the Identification of Hazards and the Assessment of Risk of Walked Routes to School. "Six of the other routes tested, including the one from Michaelston-le-Pit, have been identified as being safe and a small number of pupils will no longer be entitled to free school transport. Dozens of pupils living in the Vale of Glamorgan are set to benefit from free transport to school for the first time when term starts."