Kirkburton girl’s bus pass battle with Kirklees Council

May 15 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A FURIOUS mother has blasted Kirklees Council which has refused to pay for her daughter's transport to school.

And she is horrified they insist the girl should walk a 2.7 mile route which includes a dangerous, remote and unlit track.

Angry mum Amanda Green applied to Kirklees Council for a bus pass for her daughter Charlotte when she started at Kirkburton Middle School in Huddersfield – the school closest to her home in Shepley.

Living more than three miles from the school – following routes by road – she assumed Charlotte would be eligible for free transport, which would save her family around £29 per month.

However, part-time careers adviser Amanda, 43, was told the council had measured the route and found it to be just 2.7 miles – inside the three-mile cut off point for free transport.

When she pointed out that the route Kirklees Council had measured involved using a lonely track, rather than walking on safe main road, she was told that was “due to the rural nature of Kirklees”.

The mother-of-two has pointed out the that the Government guidelines require walking routes to school to be safe, but her daughter has not been granted a pass.

“I am absolutely incensed. The route is a track running between uninhabited and unlit land. I absolutely challenge the local authority on the safety of this route.