YOUNGSTERS are unable to walk a village school because it is too dangerous, and now their headteacher is campaigning to have a new path put in.

Most of the pupils at St Benedict’s Primary School in Ampleforth are driven there because the road to the school is a single track, about the width of a car, with no pavement for children to walk on.

Headteacher Michael Gallagher said: “This has been a worsening problem ever since I became headteacher here. I have spoken to the county council and they would like to help, but there are a lot of problems to overcome.

“The road outside the school is ‘unadopted’, which means that it belongs to the people whose houses line it, rather than to the county council.

“If we put a path in, there is also a worry that parents might just park on the path. Added to that, the cost of the path would be so high, there is no way we could manage it within our budgets without assistance from the government.

“Having a path outside our school would make an immeasurable difference to our pupils because families could walk to school together.

“We could also take part in all sorts of walk-to-school initiatives, and it would be healthier for the children. Unfortunately at the moment, I worry for their safety and it seems safer if they don’t walk at all.”

Carolyn Hannah, a full-time mother to five-year-old twins Edmund and Oliver, said: “We live on St Hilda’s Walk, right near the school, so each day we either walk in, or the boys use their scooters, but despite the fact it is such a short distance, we always go at 8.30am to beat the traffic. I would never dream of leaving the house at 9.50am because it’s unsafe. I think it’s right that the boys walk to school, and it should be a safe environment for them to walk, but there is only a pavement for half the way.

“If there was a pavement all the way to school, lots more parents would walk to school with their children.

“We talk to each other all the time as they are passing in their cars, and what we all agree on is that it is awful.

“The afternoons are the worst – you get a situation where you simply cannot leave the school on foot, because the road is so narrow, and it is jammed with cars.”

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said: “The council is well aware of the difficulties faced by St Benedict’s, in finding a solution to providing a safe footpath for pupils coming to and from the school.

“St Benedict’s moved to a greenfield site in the 1960s on Back Lane running east, parallel to the main street, to allow for expansion and for the development of playing fields.

“Back Lane, which is unadopted, and has no footpath, extends beyond St Hilda’’s Walk which is maintainable as the public highway and does have a footpath.

“The school has increased its roll in recent years, with a consequential increase in traffic, and county council officials are now looking further to see what can be done to resolve the matter.”