To: Cheshire West and Chester Council

The Petition Statement:

We, the undersigned residents of Tattenhall and surrounding areas, call on Cheshire West and Chester Council to immediately review, reverse, and provide emergency relief for its decision to withdraw free home-to-school transport to Bishop Heber High School.

The new school year has begun, and the Council’s policy is now actively compromising the safety, financial stability, and emotional well-being of 11-year-old children and their families. We demand an immediate end to this gridlock.

Why This Is Crucial Right Now: 

• Severe Child Safety Risks on Public Transport: With no school bus provided, children are forced onto the public A41 bus. It is dangerously overcrowded with commuters and pupils, forcing 11-year-olds to stand for long journeys or, worse, leaving them stranded at the roadside when buses are full. Parents face an impossible choice: risk their children's safety or face criminal fines and prosecution for school non-attendance.
• Catastrophic Accident Risks on the A41: The A41 corridor between Tattenhall and Malpas is notorious for severe traffic accidents; including a recent collision involving a lorry, a van, and a car that closed the road entirely for 12 hours. Forcing 11-year-old children to travel unrestrained and standing up on this high-risk route is potentially catastrophic. Will the Council wait until an avoidable tragedy happens before they act?
• Chaos, Congestion, and Cost for Families: Parents forced to drive are trapped in two 30-minute round trips every day. This is causing significant traffic congestion, conflicting heavily with work commitments, and disrupting drop-offs for younger siblings at Tattenhall Park Primary. The immense financial burden of daily petrol costs falls entirely on families.
• Flawed Analytics & Catchment Policy Failures: The Council relies on invisible internal GIS distance data that was hidden from parents during applications. Furthermore, the Council's transport policy completely contradicts the actual admissions policies and published catchment areas for all local schools; including Tarporley High School, which explicitly states out-of-catchment parents are solely responsible for transport.
• Appeals System Failure: Forcing families into a protracted appeals process has left vulnerable children starting their secondary education under untold stress, with decisions predicted to drag deep into the first term of the academic year.

Breach of Statutory Guidance and Constitutional Principles:

• Violation of DfE Statutory Guidance: The Department for Education clearly states that a council's travel policy must be easily accessible, transparently written, and clearly explain how parents can distinguish between a "nearest school" for admissions and a "nearest school" for travel eligibility. CWAC’s hidden GIS mapping and subsequent layout changes represent a failure of this statutory duty.
• Disregard for Ombudsman Precedents: In recent landmark rulings (such as the case against North Yorkshire Council, complaint 25 011 927), the Local Government Ombudsman affirmed that councils must explicitly declare policy details so parents can understand financial risks before making school applications. Simply referring to a "nearest school" without clarity on transport financial implications is insufficient. Furthermore, CWAC has already faced previous Ombudsman criticism regarding policy transparency.
• Contradiction of CWAC’s Own Constitution: By withholding critical distance data during the application window and implementing conflicting criteria, the Council has directly breached the six fundamental principles guiding its own Constitution: accessibility, accountability, accuracy, efficiency, inclusion, and transparency.

Our Demands:

1. Immediate Emergency Transport Provision: Provide immediate, safe, funded school transport to Bishop Heber High School for the affected intake while the wider policy error is corrected.
2. Comprehensive Policy Alignment: Rectify the structural contradiction between the Council's "nearest qualifying school" transport rules and the actual published admissions and catchment areas of local schools.
3. A Formal Apology and Decision Review: Halt the administrative delays and review the collective Tattenhall allocation failure immediately at a council cabinet level.