Parents have taken to the streets in protest over plans to scrap free school buses for hundreds of students.
The demonstrations follow council bosses approving proposals to reclassify five walking routes to schools as ‘safe’ that parents say are dangerous – including the Middlewood Way from Bollington to Tytherington, and withdrawing the free buses.
Around 30 parents and children protested outside Bollington Town Hall.
Campaigners also organised a ‘Drive Your Child To School Day’ to highlight the problems they say extra cars would cause.
Mum Isla Roberts, from Ovenhouse Lane in Bollington, whose son, Archie, 15, attends Tytherington School, said it proved how ‘ridiculous’ and potentially fatal it could be.
She said: “Traffic was at a standstill as parents and buses tried to pull in to the school at the same time. A truck even pulled up in a cycle lane and let a child out there. Someone is going to get killed.”
She added: “Suggesting my child walks down an unlit route with limited access is like sending them out with a sign asking to be attacked.”
David Parker, from Bollington, whose two daughters, Ruby, 11, and Liberty, nine, are due to attend the school, said it was impractical to expect parents to walk their children to school.
He said: “Council leader Michael Jones said the route was unsafe three years ago and nothing’s been done to make it safer. People will hold the council responsible if anything happens to their child there.”
Heidi Reid, from Highfield Road in Bollington, whose son attends Tytherington School, said even if a subsidised bus service was introduced, it would be unaffordable for some.
She said: “For low income families with two or three children, that wouldn’t be an option, they’d be the vulnerable ones left to walk down the Middlewood Way and that’s what upsets me.”
MP for Macclesfield David Rutley said: “I spent some time walking part of the Middlewood Way with Coun John Weston and it brought home to me how long the stretches without lighting are.
“On a wet afternoon in December or January how do Cheshire East Council feel pupils who use that path can be truly safe?”
A council spokesman said it was government policy.
He said: “The council’s decision was about fairly, equitably and consistently applying that policy.
“The policy also states that it is the responsibility of parents or carers to ensure that a child gets to school.
“The council is not asking children or parents to do anything that is not already in place elsewhere in the country where children walk to school in groups, are accompanied by parents, travel by car, public transport or who cycle.”
The cabinet’s decision to review walking routes to school will be reviewed by the Children and Families overview and scrutiny committee at Sandbach Town Hall at 10am on Tuesday July 19 (see side panel).
