Annex A Unsuitable routes policy
In cases where the shortest walking route between home and school is within the statutory mileage distance and a parent believes that the walking route to the school could be considered as unsuitable, the County Council will, upon a request from the parent, undertake an assessment of the whole route, or those parts of the route which the parent deems to be unsuitable.
Routes will not be considered for their suitability if they do not meet the criteria listed below. When considering walking routes, the County Council will take into account footways, verges, walkable roadside strips, footpaths and bridleways. However, the absence of these does not always constitute the route as being unsuitable (See section 5).
The statutory mileage criteria are:
- 2 miles or over for pupils under eight years of age
- 2 miles or over for pupils over eight years of age if entitled to free school meals or parents receiving maximum amount of Working Tax Credit
- 3 miles or over for pupils over eight years of age
The County Council’s assessment of the route will consider the following factors:
1 Alternative routes
If the shortest walking route is felt to be unsuitable, however an alternative walking route or routes are available which may be classed as ‘suitable’ and which fall within the distance criteria, then assistance with travel costs will not be granted.
2 Accompanied by a suitable adult
Parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring their child’s safe arrival at school. In all cases when assessing the suitability of routes the County Council will assume that the child is accompanied, where necessary, by a parent or other responsible person and is suitably clad.
Therefore the existence of the following factors will not usually make a route unsuitable, although they would be taken into account:
- lonely routes
- moral dangers
- canals, rivers, ditches, dykes, lakes and ponds
- railway crossings
- routes without street lighting
The responsibility for the child to be accompanied as necessary rests with the parent.
3 Availability of a footway, verge, walkable roadside strip, footpath or bridleway
If these are available, then these parts of the route will not be considered to be unsuitable subject to Clause 4 below.
If the width of the roadside footway/verge/roadside strip falls to less than 1m in width and an alternative footway is not available, then traffic counts will be necessary at the points where this happens, in accordance with the width of the road, as shown in the table in Clause 5 below.
Where it is necessary to make road crossings to access an alternative footpath or a footway in excess of 1m width, the volume of traffic on the road at those points will be considered taking into account the ‘crossing parameters’ outlined in Clause 4 below.
4 Suitable crossing points
When undertaking the measuring of walking distances to school the County Council will take into account suitable road crossing points when assessing the suitability of the route.
Where road crossings are necessary, it will be assumed that if the half hour two way traffic flow (one way on dual carriageways) is below 240 vehicles, the road should be reasonably able to be crossed.
Conversely, where the half hour two way traffic flow (one way on dual carriageways) is in excess of 700 the road is assessed as being unsuitable to cross, unless there are ‘traffic interrupters’ (eg traffic lights) which provide suitable crossing gaps at reasonable intervals.
The assessments will not apply if pedestrian crossing facilities are provided.
In cases where central pedestrian islands are provided in the centre of the road to assist pedestrian crossing movements and there are no other pedestrian facilities available (ie pelican/zebra crossing), traffic flows will only be taken in one direction.
For roads where the half hourly traffic flow is between 240 and 700 vehicles, the ability of being able to cross the road comfortably four or more times in each five minute period would normally indicate a road which is reasonably able to be crossed by an accompanied child. In cases where central pedestrian islands are available, the number of crossings will be taken from the island to the footway and vice versa.
The County Council will undertake a half hourly traffic count for both the morning and afternoon during school terms to coincide with the times the route would be walked.
When determining the number of vehicles in any time period, the following 'passenger car equivalent values' (PCU's) will be used as multiplication factors:
- 3 pedal cycles 1PCU
- 2 motor cycles 1PCU
- 1 car 1PCU
- 1 LGV (under 3.5tonnes) 1PCU
- 1 Bus/Coach 2PCU
- 1 HGV 2PCU
5 Roads without footways
On roads less than 6.5m in width, where there is no public footpath or walkable verge or refuge points and where the traffic exceeds the maximum vehicle numbers per hour relevant to the width of road shown in the table below, these would be deemed unsuitable routes.
In addition, if the proportion of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s) using the route is more than 10% of the highest total traffic volume figure, relative to the road width shown in the table below, the route would be deemed unsuitable.
In undertaking the assessment, however, if there are verges which may be ‘stepped onto’ to avoid vehicles, where there is insufficient road width for the vehicle/s to pass, then these parts of the route are not deemed to be unsuitable, unless the number of vehicles exceeds that which corresponds to the appropriate road width shown in the table below.
A step off or verge is a minimum area that a pedestrian could use as a refuge which is defined as 1.5m in length and 0.5m in depth and relatively level.
Where no ‘step-off’ exists for any part of the route the number of vehicles using the route will be counted at this point in accordance with the road widths shown in the table below.
| Acceptable maximum length of single sections of road without verges or refuge before broken by a verge or refuge | Acceptable number of vehicles per half hour by road width | |||
| >3.5m road width | 3.5>4.5m road width | 4.5>5.5m road width | 5.5>6.5m road width | |
| 10m | 201-240 | 301-360 | 401-480 | 501-600 |
| 15m | 161-200 | 241-300 | 321-400 | 401-500 |
| 25m | 121-160 | 181-240 | 241-320 | 301-400 |
| 35m | 81-120 | 121-180 | 161-240 | 201-300 |
| 55m | 61-80 | 91-120 | 121-160 | 151-200 |
| 75m | 41-60 | 61-90 | 81-120 | 101-150 |
| 120m | 31-40 | 46-60 | 61-80 | 76-100 |
| 160m | 21-30 | 31-45 | 41-60 | 51-75 |
| 240m | 11-20 | 16-30 | 21-40 | 26-50 |
| 300m | 6-10 | 9-15 | 11-20 | 13-25 |
| 500m | 1-5 | 1-8 | 1-10 | 1-12 |
In order to make the assessment, the above table will only compare the number of vehicles at those places on the route where the lack of ‘step-off’ exists.
Example: 4.5>5.5m road width
There are 3 parts of the route where no verge exists.
Part 1 the gap is 15m there were 200 vehicles counted - Route suitable
Part 2 the gap is 120m there were 27 vehicles counted - Route suitable
Part 3 the gap is 300m there were 21 vehicles - Route unsuitable
Where HGV vehicles (this includes farm vehicles on rural roads) in the hourly two way traffic count on the un-verged portions of the route are more than 10 in number or where this constitutes more than 10% of the total traffic volume, then the route would be classed as unsuitable, irrespective of whether the traffic volume was reached.
6 Pupils not attending their nearest schools
In cases where a pupil chooses not to attend their nearest school, travelling expenses to a more distant school on the grounds that the route to that school is deemed to be unsuitable cannot be considered. .
7 Accident statistics
If a particular route meets the above criteria as a ‘suitable route’, the County Council will also take into consideration any significant accident data on the route.
8 Re-imbursements and unsuitable routes
Where the Council determines that a route in unsuitable, any claims for retrospective re-imbursement of travelling expenses will only be backdated to the date the Council determined the route as unsuitable.