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October 2012
School bus dispute
October 2012 The Leicestershire County Council (LCC) decision to charge £400 a year for each child to travel by bus from Field Head to Groby Community College was a controversial one and resulted in a campaign by residents, a petition and complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman. In addition Gary Smith, of Longland Safety Management Ltd joined parents, the Clerk to the Parish Council and Field Head Councillor Peter Batty on a winter walk from Groby to Field Head to assist in assessing the hazards which could be encountered by the young people in walking the route. His recommendation was that the County Council should undertake a more formal safety assessment taking into account the volume and speed of traffic. “I would advise that the bus is re-instated on safety grounds until a more specialist assessment can be undertaken at the times the children walk to and from school by the local authority,” he concluded.
In April a spokesperson for LCC said that a "new assessment process is being reported to the Council's Cabinet on 8th May. The process takes account of the Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance provided by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. Once the revised Policy has been approved an assessment, using the new criteria, will be urgently undertaken by an officer not involved with the original assessment. When the result of that assessment is known we will contact the complainant and satisfy the requirements of the Local Government Ombudsman."
The Ombudsman, however, is not satisfied and his report issued this month finds the County Council guilty of maladministration which has caused the parents injustice. In the report he does not name the complainants or schools, one of which is understood to be Groby Community College. The other school is in another Leicestershire village.
The Ombudsman's job
The Ombudsman considers complaints of service failure and administrative fault causing injustice, and decides whether a council has acted reasonably in accordance with the law, its own policies and accepted standards of local administration. The Ombudsman cannot challenge properly made decisions even though people may disagree with them, nor the professional judgement of a council's officers. If there is maladministration the Ombudsman considers whether injustice has arisen, and any suitable remedy for that injustice.
The Council's responsibilities
A council must provide free home-to-school transport for a pupil up to statutory school leaving age who lives beyond the statutory walking distance of the school and apply special rules to children from low income families. Statutory walking distance is defined as being up to three miles for pupils aged eight to sixteen. This is measured by the nearest available route along which a child, accompanied as necessary, can walk with reasonable safety. The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) guidance places a series of obligations on councils and suggests that in conducting route assessments the following factors should be considered:
"the age of the child;
whether any potential risks might be mitigated if the child were accompanied by an adult;
the width of any roads travelled along and the existence of pavements;
the volume of traffic travelling along any roads:
the existence or otherwise of any street lighting: and
the condition of the route at different times of the year, at the times of day that a child would be expected to travel to and from school."
The Ombudsman's decision
Local Government Ombudsman Dr Jane Martin concluded that the Council did not consider most of these factors, and this was maladministration, as was the failure to notify parents of the outcome of it's reassessment of the walking routes and their right of review. In addition the Council only carried out some of the actions it agreed with The Ombudsman. It has yet to apologise formally and pay £100 each to the complainants to reflect the time and trouble incurred in complaining. It also has to write confirming the outcome of the re-assessments and the right of review and undertake a re-assessment of one of the walking routes. LCC is also required to review and amend the existing review process to ensure it is fit for purpose. The Ombudsman found the Council’s flawed decision-making process and subsequent review were maladministration caused the complainants avoidable uncertainty about whether it would provide free home-to-school transport,and time and trouble in pursuing their complaints with the Ombudsman.
The parent's reaction
The parents feel that the Ombudsman's report confirms that they have been let down, and their children put at risk, but that their problem has not been resolved. One said : “So the dark mornings are approaching, weathers turning and our children have to walk alongside a dual carriageway on a narrow pavement that has no grass verge or safety barrier between them and the 40+ tonne HGV's tucking down Bradgate Hill. And not forgetting that LCC have switched off the lights along the route as part of their energy saving initiative. Finally, don't forget our children can wave to their friends travelling on the Markfield bus to the same school along the same route with empty seats, yet these cannot be made available.”
The Council's response
A Leicestershire County Council spokesman said : "We take complaints made to the Ombudsman very seriously. As such, we have already acted on many of the remedies she has set out and are working to comply with the rest of the recommended actions. As a result of this investigation we have already reviewed and introduced a revised home to school transport walking route assessment policy so it is more robust and reflects the Department of Education and Skills Guidance from 2007. Two of the routes in question have been reassessed and remain as available walking routes. The Ombudsman has confirmed that our revised policy and the reassessments undertaken fully comply with the guidance. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the parties concerned for any uncertainty that has been cased as a result of this."
The Council has three months to notify the Ombudsman of the action it has taken or proposes to take. The report, which is 10 pages long, can be read on the Ombudsman's website – http://www.lgo.org.uk/news.
April 28, 2012 The Leicestershire County Council (LCC) decision to charge £400 a year for each child to travel by bus from Field Head to Groby Community College was a controversial one and resulted in a campaign by residents, a petition and complaints to the Ombudsman. The Council has declined to comment on reports that the Ombudsman had made a series of recommendations which supported the case of the parents and included a formal review of it's home to school transport policy and a re-assessment of the route.
However the story is taking a step forward, and a spokesperson for Leicestershire County Council said that "The new assessment process is being reported to the council's cabinet on 8th May. The process takes account of the Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance provided by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. Once the revised Policy has been approved an assessment, using the new criteria, will be urgently undertaken by an officer not involved with the original assessment. When the result of that assessment is known we will contact the complainant and satisfy the requirements of the Local Government Ombudsman." Concerned parents and the hundreds of residents who signed the petition will await the outcome with interest.
February 2012 The parents who have been told they must pay £400 a year for each child to travel by bus to Groby Community College don't think so, neither does Gary Smith, of Longland Safety Management Ltd. He recently joined parents, the Clerk to the Parish Council and Field Head Councillor Peter Batty on a walk from Groby to Field Head to assist in assessing the hazards which could be encountered by the young people in walking the route. The mainly uphill walk was undertaken at a slow pace and took around one and a half hours. Consultant's report
In the report he acknowledges the need to spend public money in an appropriate way but adds that “putting young people at risk and placing more stress on their families is not an appropriate saving of public money.” He comments on a number of risk factors relating to the relative isolation of parts of the route and the footpaths leading to wooded areas which intersect it. “As a parent I would not be happy with my children walking through the area as it is quite isolated,” he commented.
He also shares the concerns of parents about the lack of street lighting following the switching off of lights by the County Council. Students have said they need to leave home at 7.15am in order to reach the College in time, and during the recent cold snap would have faced the additional hazard of slippery footpath surfaces. Gary believes that if any incidents occurred along the route to students whose bus privileges had been removed the potential civil litigation that would follow would be hard for the local authority to defend. Exposure to diesel fumes is another issue that Gary says should be taken into account.
His recommendation is that the County Council should undertake a more formal safety assessment taking into account the volume and speed of traffic. “I would advise that the bus is re-instated on safety grounds until a more specialist assessment can be undertaken at the times the children walk to and from school by the local authority,” he concluded.
Ombudsman concerned
In another development one of the parents has discussed her appeal with the office of the Local Government Ombudsman. She reports that her case officer also expressed concern about the safety aspects of the route and the fact that it seems that no full safety assessment has been carried out. He agrees that lighting is relevant and should be taken into consideration as this is a 4 lane carriageway with heavy goods vehicles and in the dark mornings children will be at risk. He will ask why Leicestershire County Council consider lighting to not be an issue, as on a four lane carriageway it is unreasonable to allow any child to walk this route in the dark with HGV likely to ‘pull’ children into the road or ‘catch their bags’. And it can happen. A few days before Christmas a man died after getting out of his car on the hard shoulder of the M6 near Keele. He was hit by an HGV in a freak motorway accident and it is thought that he was sucked on to the carriageway by a passing truck.
The parent adds that the case officer said that the potential dangers are significant and he will ask for a full and robust safety assessment to be undertaken as soon as possible as it is not acceptable for the assessment on the 28th July to carry any significant reliance. Meanwhile, he said he will ask for transport to be reinstated while they conduct this new safety assessment and ask for reimbursement of any fees paid by the affected parents.
A parliamentary debate
A parliamentary debate led by Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan gave members the opportunity to discuss the issue of free bus travel. Nicky pointed out that the Directgov website states on its home-to-school transport page that “Safe walking routes are those which usually include road crossings, good lighting and well maintained pavements and footpaths. Local Authorities are required to assess the suitability of walking routes.”
She also explained the Leicestershire County Council view on the Directgov approach in a letter from the Assistant Director of Transport dated 20 July 2011 in which he argued that ‘safe’ is a very absolute term and it is not possible to guarantee that anything is absolutely safe, so it is an unreasonable stipulation. “The law requires that a walking route be ‘available’ for a child accompanied as necessary by a responsible adult and it is this criterion that we apply.”
County Council's position
In a statement a spokesperson for Leicestershire County Council said “the Council takes seriously concerns about the safety of school children and all other road users. It carries out its assessments of walking routes to school in accordance with nationally agreed guidance issued by Road Safety GB, as agreed by the Scrutiny Review Panel in home-to-school transport." February 2012
The original story
"The wheels on the bus go round and round" is a song we sing to our children. But some parents living at Field Head have been told that although the wheels on the school bus to Groby still go round and round they will have to pay £400 a year for each child they want to put on it, even though there are empty seats on the bus which carries children who qualify for free school transport.
Both parents and students turned out in force at the November Parish Council meeting to ask for the support of the Council for their petition and fight with Leicestershire County Council, and to question County Councillor David Sprason. The meeting was told that a new satellite tracking system for calculating the distance between home and school had improved the accuracy of the decision making about who qualifies for free transport and who has to pay.
Councillors from the Parish, Borough and County were united in their opposition to the imposition of the new charge and whilst acknowledging that the distance from school rules had been applied argued that there was a lack of common sense in the decision, particularly because of the dangerous nature of the A50 as a walking route to school.
Dangerous route
Anyone who has walked the route will be aware of intimidation felt as vehicles speed past and the feeling that if a vehicle should leave the road the driver might escape but at those speeds a pedestrian wouldn't stand a chance. One resident told of her own walk from Field Head into the village one lunchtime. She was passed by 87 lorries, three of which had drivers using their mobile phones. The walking route is a recognised black spot locally for speeding drivers and road traffic accidents, including overturned lorries.
For parent Ray Palmer it is the second time he has been involved in a school transport dispute locally. He told the meeting of the hazards of the road : the dangerous roundabout, the speed, the crossing at the lights at Lena Drive, the hazards of the Quinto depot for young pedestrians, and the sheer risk to young students of walking such an isolated route in the dark. Although it could be argued that technically the road is not isolated because of the volume of traffic in practice any motorist who saw an incident would be unable to brake and stop quickly for fear of causing a major accident.
A day in the life of a student
One of the young students at the meeting spoke eloquently and confidently about her day at the college if she has to walk. Loaded up with her course work and PE kit her day would start at 7.15am for the more than an hour it takes to walk to the college. At 3.15pm she would retrace her steps, but it would take 90 minutes for the uphill hike. Once back in Field Head there's home work and revision to get on with.
“When I was young we walked everywhere and thought nothing of it,” some might say. But then the volume of traffic on roads was a fraction of those today, so much so that many youngsters of that time will recall playing football in the streets.
Point by point challenge
Although there are only 16 students affected 331 signatures have been collected in support of their campaign for common sense. The Parish Council is to meet with representatives of the parents to build a challenge to the County Council assessment point by point. No doubt in addition to their analysis they will be sending the message that the Council should apply common sense, treat these students not as a source of income but as vulnerable youngsters, and perhaps most of all not to hide behind the rules.