Read it and weep

On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:27:57 +0100, Tom Crispin <...@this.bit.freeuk.com.munge

Remember this?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1088207/Health-safety-row-boy-10-barred-cycling-school.html

Here's a follow-up:

http://www.citycycling.co.uk/issue48/issue48page6.html

Ah, remember your schooldays? Summers that never ended, except for
proper winters with proper snow; music that had a tune; teacher's
strikes; and doing your cycling proficiency then struggling to find a
parking space in the bike shed. Glorious. Kids these days, you tell
them that, and they won't believe you.

Well to be honest, Sam O'Shea has got a few perfect reasons not to
believe you, having been effectively banned from riding to St Paul's
School in Portsmouth. Sound strange? It did to us here at citycycling
Towers as well when we first covered the story in our news stories in
issue 42. And when Sam's parents got in touch with us following the
latest round with his school’s governors we were even more confused
with what was going on.

The crux of the matter is this. Sam wants to cycle to school; his
parents want him to cycle to school; the governors (and in particular
Mrs Lynch, the head Governor) had stated that the road outside the
school was too dangerous (but they would reconsider this once it had
been converted to one-way), that the entrance ramp to the school yard
was too narrow, and that there was nowhere to store bikes.

Therefore bikes were not allowed onto school grounds, which operated
as an insurmountable barrier to Sam cycling.

This has snowballed from a very basic initial enquiry by Angela
O'Shea, Sam's mother, "When he was in year 5 and was completing a
school survey about travelling to school he asked his teacher if he
could cycle to school. His teacher said that he could when he had
passed his cycle proficiency test. When he said he had already he was
told that he had to do course run by the school for year 6 students.

So in September 2008 when he started year 6 I popped into the school
to get the matter straightened out, thinking it would be a formality
when they found out that he had already passed his CPT but was told
that he could cycle to school but I would have to come with him in the
car to take his bike home, then bring it back in the evening as there
was no where onsite for the storage of bikes."

Yes, you read that correctly. Sam was to be the David Cameron of the
cycling to school world, being followed everywhere by his mother in a
car. And you may have spotted another little snippet that Angela
mentioned, the school operates a cycling proficiency scheme.

We simply had to know how on earth that operated.

"For the duration of the course they [can] take their bikes to and
from school daily or leave them on-site. All of the reasons why Sam
cannot cycle to school did not matter for the children of 2 whole
classes (up to 60 children) ie they could store them on-site, they
could cycle to and from school on a very busy 2-way road, enter the
school via the very narrow gate going up and down the ramp."

So what happens when they pass the course?

"All of a sudden the road is a death trap, there is no storage, the
entrance too narrow, the ramp is dangerous".

Have we just entered some parallel universe where logic is frowned
upon? Actually, since all of this started the area has apparently got
even more perilous for cyclists, with the school now laying claim to,
"a car park down the road which is dangerous and an industrial area (2
garages) round the corner."

So what could be done about all of these dangers and barriers to
cycling? Quite a lot it would seem.

Looking at the road itself first. There had been campaigns for 7 years
to make the road outside the school one-way, but within 4 months the
O'Shea's campaign had succeeded in making this a reality.

The road is still busy, the school commenting without irony that this
is especially the case at the start and end of the school day, but for
the most part it is at a standstill. The car park and 'industrial
area' that were mentioned tie in with the road, but in the midst of
everything someone, it's not clear whether it was the governors or the
school, commissioned a risk assessment.

It concluded that there were risks, but that all were easily and
practically mitigated.

"The risk assessment recommended that the cyclists dismount and walk
their bikes along Bourne Road so I could not believe it when Mrs Lynch
said that he could not bring his bike onto the school site because of
the car park and the industrial site. The cyclists will be on the
pavement at this stage of the journey so if it is unsafe for cyclists
then surely it must be unsafe for pedestrians?"

We've seen the risk assessment, and even if the 'dangerous' road was
taken in isolation the continued 'no cycling' stance of the school in
light of its findings is frankly barmy.

But the 'dangerous' road is not the matter in isolation, so what of
the narrow entrance? Fair point, the entrance is narrow, what could
possibly be done? Well how about opening up another gate to the school
which is, at the moment, permanently locked?

Push your jaw back up, yes, there is another entrance which is
currently not used for anything. Of course once through that entrance
there still remains that problem of no bike storage. Except there is.

"When I was told there was no where to store bikes I asked what about
the cycle cover just inside the school gate, I was told that it used
to be a cycle storage but there was nothing to lock bikes to so that
could not be used. I contacted Portsmouth City Council who offered 2
bike stowages to the school, not only that they said they would supply
and fit them free of charge." The school response? They turned down
the offer.

So let's just look at that again. The school says that the road is too
dangerous despite a risk assessment that concludes that it is not with
the correct mitigation put in place; the entrance way is too narrow,
despite there being another unused entrance to the school; and that
there is nowhere to store the bikes despite there being an existing
bike shed and the offer of free fully-installed bike racks.

And this is like Christmas, there's more believe it or not.

St Paul's is a designated 'Healthy School'. It also seems it's a
caring school, "We were told by Mrs Schouller [the Head Teacher] that
'we are a Catholic School so we care how our children get to and from
school'." So other types of school don't care?

Cyclists seem to be seen as some sort of invasion force, "The minutes
of the Governors meeting back in September 2008 said they were
'worried about the numbers of children wanting to cycle increasing'."
Don't want too many cyclists meaning the road outside the school is a
bit quieter do we?

There is a school travel plan in place, and a whopping 52% of pupils
travel to school by car. That same travel plan contains the figure of
41% who actually want to cycle to school. So you would think that
somewhere the O'Shea's might find someone with the will to help?

It seems not, not even from Safer Routes to School. "I have worked
closely with the Safer Routes to School Dept of Portsmouth City
Council. When the final decision came through I spoke with Michelle
Love and sent her a copy of the letter from the Head of Governors
telling us of their decision, she said they were stunned by the
decision and needed to think about what to do next.

I was told this week by Amber Kerens-Bathmaker (the team leader) that
they can only respect the decision made by the school governors and
concentrate on Walk to School on Wednesdays and persuading children to
get the school bus! Incredibly she said she had not spoken with the
school about their decision and didn't know their reasons, she had not
seen the copy of the letter I sent to her team, did not know the
reasons behind the school's decision but said they had to respect
their decision?"

This is giving us a headache just trying to work out how on earth
anyone can justify the ongoing 'ban'.

And really this is about more than just one boy's desire to ride to
school. Angela sums it up perfectly, with words that we will leave you
with, "If we take our children to and from school in the car every day
then we are not preparing them for the rest of their lives, they have
to be able to make road safety decisions independently - we cannot
wrap them up in cotton wool for the rest of their lives."

We will be offering the school the right to reply to this piece, and
so hope to have more in next month's issue. But in the meantime, if
you're as confused and annoyed by what seems to be a total abdication
of logic, then get in touch with the local paper, Portsmouth City
Council, and the school itself, to try and get to the bottom of the
matter.

In the meantime Sam, enjoy your summer holidays where you can cycle
unfettered.