LOCAL Councillors at Croft have joined parents in their opposition to Warrington Borough Council’s proposed changes to suggested school commute walking routes for children.
Cllr. Matt Smith (Culcheth, Glazebury and Croft) explains “if a child has to walk over three miles to their nearest secondary school or if the route is considered too dangerous, they are provided a free school bus pass. “This has always been the case for many children in Croft who have to walk over three miles to reach Culcheth High School
“This year, Warrington Borough Council has chosen to reassess all walking routes previously considered too dangerous for school children to use. Some routes that were considered hazardous in the past are now rated as ‘available’ for use by children.
“The council are now suggesting that children can walk along some of these routes to reduce the commute to under three miles so that a free bus pass does not have to be provided. Unfortunately, neither parents nor Councillors consider some of these newly assessed routes to be acceptable for a child’s walk to school.”
Croft Parish Councillor Cheyvonne Bower added: “The borough council is telling parents that their children should walk down steps from Churchfield on to Lady Lane. Over 100 metres of the Lady Lane route is unlit, has no pavement and the council’s own data shows that the average speed of vehicles there is well over the speed limit.
“The Council suggests that relatively low traffic numbers mean that the walk will be OK, but clearly it only takes a single car to hit a child. With bushes right to the edge of the road there is nowhere for a pedestrian to escape from oncoming vehicles if they haven’t been seen. Nobody who knows this road would consider allowing Children to walk the route, especially as we enter winter and they could be walking in the dark with poor weather further reducing visibility. It would be an accident waiting to happen and is completely avoidable. It is notable that the Council call the route ‘available’ but will never go so far as to call it safe. I’m asking for Warrington Borough Council to reverse this decision.”
Matt added: “The Council has a priority to ‘protect the most vulnerable’. Suggesting that children walk along Lady Lane in the dark to get to and from school is clearly putting them at risk. I support Council officers making sensible decisions to save money where they can, but this proposal cannot go unchallenged.
“Some parents have already appealed against the Council’s decision. I hope that the appeals panel will make the right call and reverse the decision, acknowledging that this proposed walking route is too dangerous for our children.”
Councillors Cheyvonne Bower and Matt Smith on Lady Lane at dusk, demonstrating the poor visibility, lack of street lights and absence of pavement.
