PARENTS who recently lost an appeal to Cornwall Council to reinstate free transport for Delabole schoolchildren living less than three miles from their secondary school have had their case taken up by the local government ombudsman.

The Post has previously reported that parents of children from the Medrose end of Delabole were informed last summer by Cornwall Council that their children would no longer be entitled to free transport to Sir James Smith’s School as they lived within three miles of the school entrance, and as the route via the unmarked rural lane past Deli Farm had been assessed as safe for pedestrians.

However, parents say the route is a narrow, poorly-lit 60mph road from the village into Camelford, which they most recently walked last Friday along with their MP, Conservative Scott Mann.

A petition set up by the parents has gathered more than 5,600 signatures. On this website, they claim concessionary passes have been offered to them at a cost of over £5,000, but that this will not guarantee the schoolchildren a place on the bus.

One of the concerned parents, Claire Sleep, said they went to the parish council at the beginning of the term, adding: “They actually said that they will cover it term by term for a maximum of a year until it gets sorted. They feel that strongly about it themselves that no child should have to do that — covering the cost because it’s so unsafe for a child to walk it.”

She said their ‘stage two appeal’ was turned down by Cornwall Council in August, but added: “We are not the sort to give up,” and that their case has now been taken up by the ombudsman.

Claire said of the guidelines Cornwall Council follows: “[Cornwall Council] use a flow chart to say whether a route is safe for a child to walk. What they have done is where it says is there sufficient visibility, they have gone ‘yes’. We feel they should have gone ‘no’. We are a little bit confused as to why they have done that. They won’t look at it again.”

Claire said she has had issues with the bus pass situation for four years — some parents have had issues for longer than that — adding: “It’s just ridiculous.

“We are just fed up with it now and want it to be sorted once and for all. The route’s clearly unsafe. [Cornwall Council] are just digging their heels in.”

Hannah Fox is another of the parents whose children are affected. One of her children is now in Year 11, and she said she has had problems since he started at Sir James Smith’s School.

She explained they walked the route last Wednesday, which generated media interest, and MP Scott Mann said he wanted to walk the route, hence the Friday walk. She said: “It was just really highlighting the difference between walking it in the summer time and that it’s not safe, and the extra difficulties walking the route in the dark.

“If the kids hadn’t been on half term they would have had to walk at that time last week. The council have said it’s safe but it’s not.

“One of the reasons the council said the route was safe was that there were plenty of adequate step off points if vehicles come by. There aren’t any and once leaves get over the road you can’t even see what’s covering gulleys, potholes. The cars were skidding on the leaves when they were coming across us.”

She said the walk on Friday took them about an hour at a fairly fast pace, but that some children would have an extra 10 minutes’ walk to get to where they started the route. Hannah added: “Even from the first crossing point there’s no proper road crossing or anything. All of the children have to cross that main road where cars are accelerating out of the village or coming in from the national speed limit.”

Hannah said: “The ombudsman have agreed to look into our case,” but said it could be up to four weeks before they start investigating.

“We have lots of support from Scott Mann, from parish councillors, governors at Sir James Smith’s, the head at Sir James Smith’s. We have all this to give the ombudsman, along with all the evidence from the appeal. What the ombudsman will be looking at is how Cornwall Council dealt with the appeal, because we don’t feel it was dealt with fairly — because the route was assessed by CORMAC who are part of Cornwall Council.

“Cornwall Council are sticking to the Government guidelines rigidly and that’s the excuse they are using.”

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “The council takes around 14,000 children to and from school each day, which costs about £15-million a year. We follow national guidelines, which includes providing free transport to children over eight who live more than three miles from their school.

“In the case of the youngsters in Delabole who live closer than this to their school, the decision was reviewed twice and each time the same conclusion was reached. We appreciate this wasn’t what parents wanted to hear. The decision has now been referred to the local government ombudsman and we await the outcome of the review.

“Parents can pay for their children to travel on school transport if they don’t qualify for free travel, and families involved in the Delabole case have taken up this option.”