HGVs hurtling past, narrow path, no lights... I would not let my daughter walk this route
Following yesterday’s Derby Telegraph story on the scary walk to school children must take beside a 70mph road, EDDIE BISKNELL sets off on the same route and gets an idea of just how perilous it could be REPORTER TAKES DERBYSHIRE’S SCARIEST WALK TO SCHOOL
HUNDREDS of pupils a day walk each day along an unlit route to Derbyshire’s largest secondary school with cars hurtling past at 70mph.
They run a dangerous gauntlet of sliproads, roundabouts and a busy dual carriageway as they make their way from Hilton to John Port Spencer Academy, in Etwall, along parts of the A50 – and their worried parents have had enough.
Yesterday, we reported that villagers are angry about the situation with Hilton mum-of-two Emma Watson, 43, arguing that the route is too dangerous. She has been lobbying Derbyshire County Council for it to be reassessed and for crossings to be installed.
To find out just how dangerous the walk is, LDR reporter Eddie Bisknell completed the route himself and here is how he got on.
I started my 1.7-mile walk from Hilton to John Port Spencer Academy in Etwall shortly after 10.30am from the village’s well-known Millennium clock.
The route took me 26 minutes and while I started my journey outside of the rush-hour period, it was still easy to get an idea of how perilous the route could be each morning and afternoon.
What makes this walk to school different to any other I am familiar with, including my own across Buxton in the High Peak during my youth, is that it focuses on highvelocity, heavy-duty roads.
Instead of zig-zagging through residential streets and parks, with regular traffic lights and zebra crossings, the route from Hilton to John Port in Etwall follows the 60mph A516 and the 70mph A50.
From the Millennium clock to Etwall, I had to navigate three roundabouts and two slip roads.
The path alongside these roads is often single-file, not helped by overgrown bushes on some parts of the route.
When I think of my walks to and from school, and that of my 12-yearold daughter, it is clear that this route stands aside as an extreme anomaly.
The width of the paths alongside the route are narrow and during school rush-hour, children will be within a metre of vehicles travelling at dangerously high speeds and posing a serious risk to safety, should a student trip or bump into their friend and step into the road.
Parts of the route split the path in two, with one half for cyclists and the other for pedestrians – but in some places this leaves the half for cyclists more narrow than a set of handlebars.
When large HGVs and car-carriers whizz past, it causes a heavy gust of wind which I could easily see pushing an 11-year-old child, walking or cycling, off their balance.
This also does not factor in the general cajoling and playful pushing which forms part of every walk to school with friends.
What alarmed me most was the lighting on the route. The journey from Hilton to Etwall is, for the most part, unlit.
The only sections which are lit are the A50 roundabouts, and the large underpass which carries the main road over the footpath. During the winter, when the walk to and from school will be particularly dark or carried out in pitch black, this is a worry for a parent, such as myself.
It is a route which I would not allow my daughter to walk.
When crossing the two A50 slip roads there are numerous signs flagging-up to motorists that pedestrians or cyclists may be in the road, but it is fair to say they are not prominent or numerous.
Thinking about how long it would take a vehicle travelling at 70mph – especially an HGV – to stop, it is not comforting to think of children crossing a slip-road underneath a sole, diminutive sign.
Once you navigate the A50 roundabouts, the route moves on to the A516, which was particularly busy even outside of rush-hour.
There is only one section of road, possibly 60 metres long, on which there is a crash barrier aimed at protecting pedestrians from hurtling vehicles.
What makes this particular chunk of the 1.7-mile route different or more risky than the A50 slip-roads, I
am not sure. Turning right into Derby Road, the route is more like one you would expect students to be walking on, with some homes and eventually a set of traffic lights close to Etwall Leisure Centre.
The route remains narrow but the speed of vehicles is much slower.
I completely understand the feelings of parents who feel the route is unsafe and want it reassessed.
I completely empathise with their plight.
Derbyshire County Council has now reassessed the route, after months of lobbying by a persistent parent, backed up by the area’s MP and district and county councillor.
Only time will tell if the assessment deems the route hazardous.
A county council spokesperson said: “This assessment is being carried out in the next few days.
“The route hasn’t been assessed since 2003 as no one has requested
this, and we only carry out assessments if a parent asks us to. “We only provide free school transport for those children at secondary school who live more than three miles away from their normal area school, or preferred school if it is also over the three-mile walking distance – and it is nearer than the normal area school. “However, if a route to a school is deemed unsafe, which is what this assessment will look at, then we would provide free school transport for those living under three miles should any alternative routes be over the three-mile limit.
“The reason the assessment looks to see if the route is safe for parent and child is that it is the parent’s responsibility to get their child to school when under the three-mile limit, and this is the legislation we have to work to.”
What alarmed me most was the lighting on the route. The journey from Hilton to Etwall is, for the most part, unlit.