On 7th August 2024, South Lanarkshire Council voted to change the qualifying distance for free secondary school transport from 2 miles to 3 miles, effective August 2025. This decision was made despite 84% of consultation responses opposing the change, with parents, carers, and community members raising clear concerns about safety, wellbeing, and fairness.
From the FOI response (received 17/09/25), we now know that:
⚠️ Assessments of the Sandford–Strathaven route were carried out in favourable daylight/weather conditions, not reflecting dark winter mornings or poor weather.
⚠️ The assessment assumes a responsible adult is present with every child — something simply not realistic for many secondary pupils.
⚠️ Personal safety concerns (anti-social behaviour, bullying, risk of attack) were not part of the assessment — only traffic/road features were considered.
Meanwhile, the Council insists the route is “safe,” yet when workers recently carried out patch repairs, they were given traffic lights, cones, and high-viz gear for their own safety. If those protections are deemed necessary for adults working a few hours, how can it be acceptable for children to walk this route daily with no barriers, no crossings, and no lighting?
The Council’s own meeting minutes acknowledge the change will negatively impact families. They promised to “mitigate” this with things like walking groups, bus passes, amending bus routes or spare “privilege seats”, but none of these address the fact that the route itself is unsafe.
👉 The facts are simple:
Children are being asked to walk on a narrow, unlit, barrier-free path beside 60mph traffic. This would never be acceptable in a workplace under health and safety law, yet it is being imposed on our most vulnerable.
📌 Following the FOI response, we have now submitted a formal Review Request to the Council to demand greater transparency. We want full clarity on when assessments were carried out, what hazards were recorded, and what mitigation was considered. Children’s safety cannot be judged only on “favourable conditions.”
We await the Council’s “further assessment” of the route and will continue to press for full transparency.
✍️ Sign and share the petition if you haven’t already: change.org/SandfordSafety
#SandfordSafety #SafeKidsNotUnsafeRoutes #TransparencyNow