ASSESSMENTS for safe walk-to-school routes can now be carried out after an amended Walked Routes to School policy was approved.

Members of Fife Council's education and children's services committee agreed the measure, which follows wide-ranging consultation, drop-in sessions, public meetings and many routes being walked with elected members, parents and pupils.

It's a boost for Rosyth parents who say there is no safe way for their children to get to and from Inverkeithing High School on foot, as highlighted by the Press. 

The current walk-to-school assessment says crossing a busy slip road onto the M90 is a safe route for children to get to and from the high school but that could now be overturned. 

Fife Council have maintained that the Rosyth to Inverkeithing route would be prioritised for reassessment once the new policy was approved. 

In Fife, all children who live more than a mile from their catchment primary school – or two miles from their catchment secondary school – automatically receive free transport.

Children who live closer have to make their own way to school but can get free transport if it is felt there is no appropriate route to school.

These routes will now be re-assessed using the new policy as a clear guide.

The committee's vice-convener, Linda Erskine, told members she was pleased to finally have the policy approved.

"It has been quite a journey," she said. "We do feel it has been properly looked at inside and out. I think we do have something which is much more improved and which hopefully will protect as many of our children as we can."

Following the meeting, committee convener Councillor Fay Sinclair said: "We all agreed that a policy was needed as decisions for free transport had been made ad hoc in the past," she said.

"We needed something which was robust, consistent and fair for all school pupils across Fife, and I am pleased we have now done that.

"All children who live the agreed distance away from their catchment school will still continue to get free transport. What this policy does is set out clearly where we should be providing free transport for pupils who might live closer but may not have a suitable walked route to their school."

Cllr Sinclair said the policy sets out how decisions will be made and what criteria needs to be met.
"This policy is about making sure that children across Fife are being treated fairly and equally," she added.

"Up to now the process just hasn't been fair. We had secondary school children who live just short of two miles from their school who walked to school every day, while elsewhere we had children living perhaps less than a mile away who currently get a free bus because of historical decisions that had been made. 

"Now we have a clear policy which evens out the situation."

The routes will all be re-assessed in winter and in summer and no changes to existing transport will be made until August 2020 to give families time to adjust.