Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice and provided the text to St John Harris of Democratic Services (contact details below) no later than midday on Tuesday, 19 March. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item. Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:
• at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);
• when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.
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Minutes:
One public question was submitted to the committee by Alison Hume.
Question
Following the closure of Eskdale School on 31 August and transfer of pupils to the newly amalgamated and named Whitby School (formerly Caedmon College Whitby) from 1 September, the school will continue to serve the catchment area which is currently shared between CCW and Eskdale School.
Children from Stainsacre are now expected to walk 2.26 miles to Whitby School along the Cinder Track. This journey takes an adult approximately one hour.
As any local will be able to tell you, this part of the Cinder Track is unlit, pot-holed, untreated in winter, surrounded by trees, streams and woodland, passes over a long, high viaduct with very low walls, is blighted by anti-social behaviour at the Whitby end and in an area with a patchy mobile phone signal.
It is suitable for dog walkers and well-used by cyclists as part of the National Cycle Network, but completely unsafe for 11 year old + children to walk unaccompanied, particularly in the dark. I refer to an assessment made on the 23rd January 2024 by a NYC Highways Officer on the route that children will be expected to take to school. The assessment report says that there's been no consideration of personal safety, but rather just an examination of the highways and topographical journey and concludes that the journey is safe ‘accompanied as necessary’.
What is the Council doing to address this urgent question of safety - for example by improving the surface, drainage and lighting or providing school transport or staffed walking bus/active travel to accompany children on this journey?
Thank you for your attention to what is an urgent question of safety for parents of Whitby School pupils living in Stainsacre.
Officer response
This is the reply on behalf of Children and Young People’s Service and Highways Officers.
Thank you for your question.
Pupils are entitled to free home to school transport to the nearest or catchment school for a home address where it is over the statutory walking distance via the nearest available route.
The statutory walking distances are used to determine whether a child is eligible to free travel to school. The distances are prescribed by the Education Act 1996 as up to 2 miles for children under 8 and up to 3 miles for older children. There is also extended eligibility for children aged 8 and over, on low income grounds (ie children entailed to free school meals or whose parent qualifies to the maximum level of working tax credit with no reduction to their income) where the walking distance remains at up to 2 miles.
The nearest available walked route to Caedmon College, Whitby, using the cinder track, has been assessed as safe to walk, accompanied as necessary by a responsible adult. The measured distance of this route is less than 2.5 miles.
When assessing a route, the Road Safety Team have regard to the Road Safety GB - Assessment of Walked Routes to School Guidelines. These guidelines look at the relationship of pedestrians and traffic and suitability of the surface to walk on, taking into account a number of factors including road accident records, sight lines of crossing points and traffic flow; the latter is taken into account at the start and end of the school day when pupils would be walking the route.
The presence or absence of street lighting on a route is not considered to be a factor in assessing the safety of a route. When assessing the safety of an available route, only the potential risks created by traffic, the highway and topographical conditions are considered.
The matter of personal safety concerns of children travelling alone are not considered factors when assessing if a route is safe to walk or not, as personal safety is the responsibility of the parent or carer of the child. The council is under no obligation to provide free transport because parents perceive the route to be unsafe on the grounds of personal safety and security.
Where a child lives within the statutory walking distance to a school parents are responsible for arranging their child’s travel to school. There is no expectation that the child will walk. It is for parents to determine what arrangements would be suitable for their child.
In response, Ms Hume commented that the cinder track was not a highway and expressed disappointment that the council was not prepared to make any improvements to that stretch of the cinder track.
Councillor Broadbent advised that parents had a route of appeal through the Appeals (Home to School Transport) Committee.
The Chair, Councillor Colling expressed concern that the safety assessment of a walking route was limited to the potential risks created by traffic, the highway and topographical conditions and she proposed that the committee revisit this matter.