\n The route starts in Sculthorpe, before going over a small pedestrian refuge island on the A148 that leads to Fakenham Road.\n<\/p>\n
\n It then takes pedestrians over a stretch of the A1065 and through a residential area to get to Fakenham Academy.\n<\/p>\n
\n A safety assessment carried out by Norfolk County Council concluded the route was suitable for home to school transport purposes \u2013 removing the requirement to provide a bus service for children in the village.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lawrence Southerland described the council’s reasoning behind the assessment as (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n But serious concerns were raised about the methodology and conclusions by Sculthorpe man Lawrence Southerland, who described them as “mathematically flawed” and “factually incomplete”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Southerland, 44, whose youngest son is due to start secondary school next year, said: “The council said the route is fine, that it\u2019s safe to walk, but it isn\u2019t, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve challenged it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The assessment said that there is no continuous pedestrian footway along large sections of the route. Children are expected to walk on roadside verges and step offs to avoid traffic.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Their reasoning is flawed and I just think it\u2019s disgusting really. The route itself goes over unlit, national speed limit roads and doesn’t reflect the real world risks that could be faced by children.\n<\/p>\n
\n “My worry is that one child will get hurt and only then is when something will be changed”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The refuge island crossing over the A148 in Sculthorpe (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Southerland said the council’s analysis only identified three safe traffic gaps in a five-minute window at peak school hours – which is below Road Safety UK guidelines for a route crossing.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that the assessment didn’t take into consideration the reaction times, hazard perception, or walking speeds of school aged children, nor the narrow carriageway sections of Fakenham Road.\n<\/p>\n
\n There were also concerns surrounding the requirement to cross over the A1065 \u2013 without traffic lights, a pedestrian crossing or refuge island.\n<\/p>\n
\n Concerns were raised over the narrow width and lack of pedestrian footway on Fakenham Road (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n According to GOV.uk, children qualify for free school transport if they attend their nearest suitable school, live either two or three miles away, or there is no safe walking route.\n<\/p>\n
\n Steve Gibson, who has a daughter in secondary school and a 10-year-old son soon starting, is also urging the council to reinstate the scheme for affected children in the village.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s not about our individual children, but the route itself”, said Mr Gibson, 50. “There\u2019s a speed limit on the road where people cross, but motorists generally don\u2019t stick to that.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There\u2019s no pathway on Fakenham Road at all, it\u2019s not gritted in the winter and it can get very icy. I definitely wouldn\u2019t want my kids going down there.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It takes about 45 minutes to walk from our home to school. It’s not only highly hazardous, but it’s just not practical.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You don\u2019t live somewhere rural and expect all the amenities you would usually get in a town or city, but the process just doesn\u2019t feel right\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Steve Gibson said it was “not about our individual children, but the route itself” (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Calls to improve safety on the A1065 were previously raised after a 60-year-old cyclist was killed while attempting to use the crossing.\n<\/p>\n
\n Locals have also described the road as “lethal”, highlighting cars hurtling past at 60mph and grown-out hedgerows which limit visibility.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Southerland said that details of the fatal crash were omitted from the council\u2019s safety assessment of the route.\n<\/p>\n
\n The case has been escalated to the second stage of the council’s corporate complaints procedure after the first stage investigation was not upheld.\n<\/p>\n
\n The crossing over the A1065 where a fatal crash previously took place (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said: “The route has been assessed in accordance with national road safety guidelines and took into consideration all things within that guidance including road crossing assessments and accident records.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Any parent who has a child attending Fakenham Academy for whom Council-funded school transport has been refused can appeal through the home to school transport appeals process”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The route starts in Sculthorpe, before going over a small pedestrian refuge island on the A148 that leads…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-711782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}