Dad concerned for Croft children as bus passes are revoked

Shaun Goulden is a 53-year-old dad-of-three who lives in Croft and, until this year, all his children have been eligible for free bus passes to travel to Culcheth High School.

However, after a recent report from Warrington Borough Council, those bus passes have since been rescinded for some students in the village.

The report assessed the route from Gosling Road to Culcheth High School to determine whether students had a suitable alternative to taking the bus.

It was deemed that a route was available and children who live under three miles from the school and do not receive free school meals will no longer be allowed a free bus pass.

But Shaun feels that this route, which uses Lady Lane, isn’t acceptable.

“When you look down that route, it’s got high hedges on either side of the road, there’s no street lighting, no signage, no footpaths and no step offs,” he said.

“It’s always been deemed as unacceptable route, but now they’ve reassessed.”

In this report, the average speed of drivers using Lady Lane was monitored and an average included.

Despite the fact that the road has a 30mph speed limit, the average was recorded as 36mph between 8am and 9am and 37mph between 4pm and 5pm.

“To send children down that 100-metre stretch with no streetlights, no step off and so on – it’s not the most sensible thing to do,” said Shaun.

Now that his children don’t have free bus passes, Shaun has had to start driving them to and from school every day.

Culcheth High School (Image: Google Maps)

“Ultimately there is no safe route for the children to walk to school,” he said.

“I work at 8, but I can no longer get in the office on time and my partner’s a teacher, so she’s got to be in work for 8.30. So, we physically can’t get them there.

“What it means now is that I’m coming into work late each morning, and I have to finish early to pick them up and drive them back home again.

“Obviously, it’s a small country village, everyone was on the bus – the bus is going anyway. Now you’ve got all these families that are now being forced to drive their kids into school, which is increasing congestion, increasing the carbon output.”

Shaun now hopes that the bus passes for students living in Croft will be reinstated, and the report reassessed.

A Warrington Borough Council spokesperson said: “Walking routes to school are assessed by our highway’s teams according to Road Safety Great Britain guidelines, which focus on the distance to school and the interaction between pedestrians and traffic.

“The most recent assessment was carried out over a period of seven days and even at its busiest the road was classed as ‘lightly trafficked’.

“In addition, this assessment showed that almost all of Croft is less than three miles from Culcheth High School meaning that families are no longer eligible for free home to school travel.

“While no road is entirely without risk, Lady Lane has been assessed as having very light traffic, which is also visible from a distance due to the straight line of the road.

“This means the road is considered available to walk down with road safety in mind, such as wearing clothing to improve visibility and walking with an accompanying friend or adult if necessary.
“This assessment presumes that all road users will behave responsibly, follow the Highway Code and also crucially drive to the conditions of the road.

“While Lady Lane is the shortest available route for eligibility purposes, depending upon where families live, there are other routes within three miles in Croft such as via Lord Street.”