WHAT DOES IT TAKE? (From Gazette & Herald)

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

PUPILS at a rural Ryedale secondary school are still being refused school transport and have been told to walk nearly three miles on dangerous and isolated roads despite safety warnings from a senior member of North Yorkshire Police Force.

Wombleton Parish Council has been fighting for nearly two years to get a bus service to pick 20 children up from the village and deliver them to Ryedale School in Nawton.

In a recent safety assessment, Insp Neil Burnett, district police commander for Ryedale, said the roads were: "Unsafe from a road safety and personal safety perspective for either an accompanied or unaccompanied child."

But North Yorkshire County Council has so far refused to grant the service.

It says that, under its guidelines, the routes are safe.

The routes include one using the A170 Scarborough to Thirsk road, which was found in an AA-funded study to have an 'unacceptable' level of road deaths, and deemed to be one of the most dangerous roads in Britain.

The road is lined with an unpaved verge on which the grass is cut twice a year.

Coun Pat Lane, chairman of Wombleton Parish Council, said that, under highways guidelines, the road is a priority in snow fall, meaning the verges would be banked with snow ploughed to the side of the road.

The other, lengthier, routes are isolated and do not have suitable lighting or footpaths. One is highly prone to flooding, meaning children and any accompanying parents would be forced to walk in the centre of the road when it became highly pooled.

Coun Lane and Insp Burnett both believe that all concerned have legal responsibility to adhere to section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which requires measures to be taken to prevent crime occurring.

Mr Lane originally lodged an appeal on behalf of one of the parents, Sue Sharples, whose daughter Lauren is a Ryedale school pupil. He was unhappy that the assessor of the routes had not walked the route herself while making the assessment.

He complained to the ombudsman, who insisted that another appeal was heard and requested that the councillors hearing the appeal walked the route.

However, this did not occur as the council said the geographical locations of county councillors' homes rendered it impractical.

Following a further complaint to the ombudsman by Coun Lane, a fresh appeal hearing is scheduled for next month and this time the ombudsman has insisted that the councillors making the decision walk the route at 8am, when the children would have to.

Paul Atkin, clerk to the appeals committee, said: "It is definitely set to go ahead in June and it is long overdue. The walk will be made at the appropriate time, as specified by the ombudsman."

Councillors will also be shown a copy of Insp Burnett's statement.

In the meantime, the county council has offered to allow children to use the bus at a cost of £70 for the current Easter to summer term, and, starting from September, at a cost of £192 for the full academic year.

Coun Lane says this underlines an attitude which is inherently wrong.

"Some of the families in this village have two or three children," said Mr Lane. "That is going to cost a serious amount of money and I believe it is wrong for a child's safety to depend on parental income.

"As public servants, I think the people making these decisions have lost sight of their responsibility, which is essentially to serve the public."

He added that some of the families have subscribed to the bus service, and he has seen it travel through the village only half-full.

Parents have now sent a petition to North Yorkshire County Council demanding that the matter is fully discussed in the light of Insp Burnett's comments, and in the light of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act.

Updated: 11:41 Wednesday, May 26, 2004